good evening. there was more tension leading up to these olympic winter games than any other such gathering in memory. they are, after all, the most expensive and the most heavily defended by far. and now tonight we are finally, thankfully under way here. just as the opening games at the summer games in london was very british, as you can see tonight, these games are getting off to a very russian-themed start. the gathering now feels very spirited. but for a time today as we'll talk about it in a moment there was a scare that reminded us all of the high security stakes. first, however, the command that has gone out to let these games begin. nbc's kevin tibbles has more. kevin, good evening. >> reporter: brian, just a few years ago, sochi was a sleepy little tourist town on the banks of the black sea. well, tonight, sochi welcomed the world with a festival of sound and color, and oh yes, a little controversy mixed in. the big show has come to sochi. and thousands streamed into the olympic park with smiles and cheers and a russian greeting for visitors. >> welcome to sochi! >> reporter: after the metal detectors and bag checks a daily ritual, it took those today attending this evening's opening ceremony just a few minutes to get to the stadium. >> i don't want to be late. >> reporter: security ever present, sometimes even friendly. inside, a spectacle about a proud people. many u.s. athletes celebrated with selfies. after six olympics it never gets old. todd lodwick chosen to carry the flag. >> i think it's going to be an eye-opening moment, almost like winning the medal itself. >> reporter: just one noticeable glitch. one of the olympic rings failed to materialize. among those who carried the torch of the olympic torch, rumored to be linked to the russian president putin, though the relationship has never been confirmed. she handed it off to one of the most decorated figure skaters in russia, a national hero who has drawn international criticism for a doctored photo she tweeted of president obama last year that many considered racist. but for those in attendance, a breath-taking evening. tennis star and sochi hometown hero maria sharapova also carried the torch. she expects russia to wow the world. >> knowing our history of dance and art and culture, we enjoy a good program. we enjoy a great performance. >> and a great party? >> and a party, yes, with a couple of vodka shots. >> reporter: russia's olympic coming out party is under way, the most expensive games in history. under the big top in sochi. and fears of empty seats in the olympic stadium seem to be a bit premature. the place was filled to the rafters. and of course those waiting to watch the show, the big show tonight. a couple of highlights that i noted, brian, being in there, one, the jamaican bobsled team got a great cheer. their gear finally showed up and they're ready to go. and then of course when team russia walked into the building, the roof came off. >> i think the games just needed to begin. kevin tibbles starting for us tonight. kevin, thanks. as mentioned, the big scare had arrived as the opening ceremony was under way, that a man had attempted to hijack this jetliner and ordered the pilots to fly it here to sochi. while it now turns out he may have been in an altered state and there never was a bomb on board it speaks to the hair trigger in this entire region. richard engel has that story tonight. richard, good evening. >> reporter: good evening, brian. imagine if that plane had been diverted to sochi during the opening ceremony while the world is watching, a stadium full of vips. and don't forget this entire area is full of anti-aircraft missiles. but in the end it was averted. as spectators filed in to the opening ceremony, few had any idea a hostage drama was under way, that a hijacker was trying to divert a passenger plane their way. a turkish boeing 737-800 carrying 110 passengers took off from kharkov in the ukraine for a flight to istanbul. but once in the air, a ukrainian man claimed he had a bomb and demanded the plane divert to sochi. passengers took photographs and cell phone videos they say showed the hijacker in a red and white jersey. but it may have been cool thinking by the pilots that averted a major crisis. the pilots stayed calm, pretending to cooperate, telling the hijacker they were heading to sochi, while continuing on to istanbul. they turned off the in-flight map system so the hijacker could not see where the plane really was, and over the black sea at night, it would have been hard to identify any landmarks. when the plane entered turkish air space, the pilots tripped an alarm alerting the officials on the ground. two turkish f-16 fighters scrambled, escorting the aircraft to istanbul, where it was surrounded by security. >> this was textbook response on the part of the flight crew to keep them under control and get the aircraft to a safe place, and also to turkish authorities to make sure that even if this turned out to be nothing, they were prepared. >> reporter: the suspect, reportedly drunk, was taken into custody, bound on a stretcher. no bomb or weapon was found. ed turkish officials believe he was acting alone. turkish police have identified the man as 45-year-old artem hozlov from the ukraine. they're investigating his background, but so far nothing suspicious. >> richard engel in the olympic village for us tonight. richard, thanks. and as they say, that's not all. there is trouble between the u.s. and russia tonight on another front. the business of diplomacy, after somebody posted on the internet the surreptitious and very clear recording between two u.s. diplomats over the dicey matter of the current unrest in ukraine. it is real, the u.s. can't hide from it and they are pointing the finger at russia. we get our report from chief foreign affairs correspondent andrea mitchell. >> reporter: vladimir putin's government is having a field day over america's diplomatic stumble as protesters chanted outside the embassy in moscow. center stage in kiev today, victoria nuland, the top u.s. diplomat for europe, trying to make light of her diplomatic undiplomatic gaffe. >> it was standard trade craft. the audio was pretty clear. >> reporter: too clear, they were heard around the world talking to the u.s. ambassador about ukraine, and using the f-word about the european union, the eu. >> [ bleep ] the eu. >> reporter: the bigger fallout on ukraine. in crisis for months. nuland was also heard sizing up the rebel leaders, sounding like a chicago ward captain. >> so i don't think klitsch should go into the government, i don't think it is necessary, i don't think it is a good idea. >> reporter: had russia bugged her phone? >> the russians were the first to tweet about this particular call. only a few countries have the level of capabilities needed. i'll let you use your own judgment. >> reporter: nuland has been tough on russia, and recently sided with ukraine's anti-government protesters, even feeding them bread. >> would you like some bread? >> reporter: putin has also gone after the u.s. ambassador to russia, who is now leaving his post and talked to richard engel today. >> what is unusual to me is that this would be put on youtube or wherever it was. that seems like something rather extraordinary. >> reporter: germany's angela merkel is said to be furious over the insult to europe. since everyone spies, veteran diplomats say a word of caution is necessary. >> i think both sides should take a little more care in the way in which we share points of view with each other. >> reporter: in other words, watch what you say. someone may be listening. andrea mitchell, nbc news, washington. on the home rund today, we learned that the economy added 113,000 jobs in january. while it was, as they say, short of expectations, the unemployment rate did tick down to 6.6%. the problem is not fast enough growth for the millions of americans still struggling to find work, although a lot of economists continue to predict hiring will pick up the pace in the months to come. and an update on the weather in the u.s. power crews working around the clock in pennsylvania report more than 220,000 customers are still without heat and light since that big ice storm moved through. they expect, however, to have most of the homes back up online tonight. still means a lot of hardship and a lot of frozen pipes for a lot of homeowners in that area. it seemed like half of hollywood came to new york today, and yet any one of them would have given anything not to make the trip. they gathered at a church in manhattan for the funeral of philip seymour hoffman who died of an apparent heroin overdose. last weekend. he was 46 years old. his death, sadly, has brought both a crackdown by the nypd, and now renewed attention to the surge in heroin use across the country. still ahead tonight, the american athletes who made the team the last time the olympics came to russia, only their team was held back by the president. and tonight, how they turn that into success down the road. back here in sochi tonight, the only other time russia hosted the olympics was back in 1980. it was the summer games, but the u.s. team never made it here. they were ready and able and revved up for it, but politics got in the way. president carter kept the team home right at the top of their game. and when we caught up with team members from back then, we found the scars of not competing are still evident now. >> reporter: this is nbc nightly news. good evening. there was a coup d'etat in afghanistan today. >> reporter: in december of 1987, 100,000 soviet troops marched into afghanistan. at the same time, the iranians were holding american hostages. at home, the u.s. economy was stalled. in his state of the union address weeks later, jimmy carter sent a clear message to the russians, withdraw your troops or there will be consequences. >> neither the american people nor i will support sending an olympic team to moscow. >> reporter: watching the president's speech that night, the first american women's volley ball team ever to qualify for an olympics, debbie landrith was one of the ten women who had hoped to make history in moscow. >> we almost laughed at it like are you kidding? that's ridiculous. like we really didn't take it seriously. >> reporter: then there was don page, the number one american long distance runner. he was in the room along with other invited olympic hopefuls the day president carter announced his final decision. >> i can't say at this moment what other nations will not go to the summer olympics in moscow. ours will not go. >> and we're all like, he is serious. the president of the united states just said we're not going to go to moscow? we're not going to go to the olympics? >> sure, you're disappointed. >> so congratulations. >> reporter: sue walsh was 17 back then. she had just clocked the fastest time in the world for the 100 meter backstroke, and to this day, the canceled olympics are an emotional topic. >> it was knowing that my parents had bought flights to go to moscow that were not going to be refunded. and now, as a parent what you -- sorry. what you hope your hopes for your children are and then knowing that my parents -- wouldn't get to experience that? i think that was the hardest thing. >> reporter: while the games were taking place in moscow, as a consolation prize, the u.s. olympic team was invited to washington. they wore their official levis western wear team outfits that they were supposed to wear to the opening ceremony. and that is when reality sunk in for another u.s. team member, ron gallamore. >> i broke down into tears. >> reporter: gallamore grew up the son of the late chicago bears runningback willy gallamore, and he was set to become the first african-american gymnast to compete in the olympics. >> oh, what a landing! >> he knows it. >> it was not until that moment that, you know, i realized what i had achieved, you know, and the opportunity i wouldn't get. >> reporter: none of the four athletes, page, landrith, walsh or gallamore ever made it to another olympics, but they long ago decided not to let that disappointment stop them. don page founded a company that designed running track outfits for high school athletics. debbie landrith, now debbie landrith brown went on to coach at notre dame and recently celebrated her 600th victory. sue walsh competes as a swimmer and last year broke the record in her age group. and ron gallamore supports today's u.s. olympians as an executive with the usa gymnastics. >> i feel grateful to have the job i have now and working with some of the young athletes. i get to relive my life through them with the happiest ending. >> reporter: these athletes have all proven their strength and history always proves if you think it's tense between super powers now, there is often a ready example of when it was worse. another break for us. when we come back, the start of something very big 50 years ago today. you may recall that after billy jean king was named the to the official u.s. olympic delegation, she suddenly pulled out of her appearance here in sochi to be with her mother. we learned today her mother passed away this morning. betty moffet died in prescott, arizona at the age of 91. we also want to take a moment to note the passing of marty pilsner. over at cbs news, he was a competitor of our ours. but along the way, he contributed to the national news lexicon. he is the one who coined the phrase "too close to call." martin plessnor was 87 years old. these days, very few people leave the game when they're on top of their game, and that's what jay leno did last night. we now know a record 14.6 million americans watched his good-bye. billy crystal led the way with a celebrity-studded take down with music. lots of old friends stopped by. but at the end of the night it was just jay and the audience, and after 22 years and over 4,000 shows, it got emotional. >> boy, this is the hard part. i want to thank you, the audience. you folks have been just incredibly loyal. this is tricky. we wouldn't be on the air, without you people. secondly, this has been the greatest 22 years of my life. >> last night, jay said after losing his mother, father and brother, his "tonight show" family became family to him. the show now moves east as the baton and the time slot both get passed on to jimmy fallon. and in case you missed all the other coverage and tributes, this is the 50th anniversary of the beatles' arrival in the u.s. while they went on to change music forever, at the time, 50 years ago tonight on this very broorks knight broadcast, "nightly news" anchorman chet huntley was not impressed with their first visit to new york, and he said so on the air. here is what it sounded like to our viewers that night. >> like a good little news organization, we sent three camera crews to stand among the shrieking youngsters and record the sights and sounds for posterity. the pictures are very good, but someone asked what the fuss was about and we found we had no answer. so good night for nbc news. >> turns out those 4,000 shrieking youngsters who showed up at kennedy airport that day might have been on to something. when we come back, you may notice something different about one member of team usa during tonight's opening ceremony, and we'll tell you why. finally tonight, getting here. it's tough to put into words what it means to these olympic athletes. we'll see it on their faces later tonight. that is if they look out from behind their phones while they record it all. and yes, they say getting here is half the battle. but for those who get here and then have to go home because of fate or tragedy or injury or all three, that is a heartbreaker. it has already happened to one member of team usa. and chris jansing has her story tonight. >> reporter: it had been a good ski season for heidi kloser, second at lake placid, fourth in world cup overall. she first imagined going to the olympics when she was just three, and now it happened. >> it was really cool standing at the top today. it felt like the olympics for sure. >> reporter: but thursday, just seconds into her moguls warmup, a terrible crash. as she was carried off the mountain, she says she knew the games were over for her before they began. and with the innocence of that young girl who wanted to represent her country for so long, she asked her parents, am i still an olympian? did you think you were not? >> i don't know. i just didn't know for sure. i felt like i had to start to be considered an olympian. >> reporter: her dad's posting on facebook brought a deluge of support, all echoing mike's answer to his daughter, of course you are. heidi had broken her right leg but wanted to walk in the opening ceremony anyway. when she tells you she was going to walk with all those injuries? >> well, i had had some reservations, but i know how strong she is. >> reporter: heidi was determined. so after arriving to the stadium in a wheelchair, when team usa was announced, she got up, grabbed her crutches, and took in the olympic experience. and on this night of celebration, her teammates found something extra to cheer. >> she is a real american. >> she embodies that. she embodies the love and being a teammate and being out there. she is truly such an inspiration. >> reporter: on and off the slopes, life is full of twists and turns. and there is a moral to heidi's story. that champions are not just the ones who win medals. do you feel like an olympian? >> yes, i do. >> reporter: and how does it feel? >> it feels awesome. >> reporter: heidi told me tonight she hopes she doesn't have to return home to colorado right away for rehab or more treatment. she would rather stay in sochi to cheer on her teammates, brian. >> after all, she got here in the first place. chris jansing with a heartbreaker before these games begin. that is our broadcast on a friday night. and for this week, thank you for being here with us. i'm brian williams reporting from the now under way winter games in sochi. a reminder. nbc prime time coverage of the opening ceremony begins tonight 7:30/6:30 central. we hope to see you right back here tomorrow evening. good night. right now at 6:00 it's round two of the second storm of a bach that's hammering the bay area. we'll look at the live radar. you see a lot of green. rain is falling virtually everywhere but the worst is yet to come. thanks for joining us on this friday. i'm raj mathai. >> i'm jessica aguirre. we're in store for a big weekend. a major rain event like we haven't seen in sometime. right now the situation on the roads messy. drivers on 280 near highway 17 barely moving along. things not much better north of san francisco. this is a live look at the drive in san rafael on 101. this is what it looks like from the emeryville camera. you can see it's slow, slow going. lots of fresh snow, though, is falling in the sierra and many drivers are headed to the slopes. we have team coverage from the north bay to south bay. jeff remember neis tracking the >> it's by the stream of moisture moving. it's a subtropical moisture staying with us. we'll see conveyer belts of areas of rain in and across the bay. let's get you to the live doppler scan. it's been a mess across the north bay from santa rosa down throughout the golden gate bridge. it still remains wet. we'll see it like this tonight. a sore spot i
and all of them working in one way or another to try and ensure they continue their occupation of this space. the front line, there are young men with shields, black helmets, feeding those huge fires, bon fires, all designed among the barricades that are being built here to try and keep the security forces away. because after a day of the deadliest violence they have seen in three months or so, the people on the square strongly believe the security forces are going to try and kick them out. tonight, though, opposition party leaders have been negotiating with the government and the president a short time ago. shows talks broke up without results or even such a deadly toll, one that has claimed more than 20 lives we believe has not been able to edge the two sides of this crisis closer and enable them to try and find some sort of solution, anderson. >> phil, we're showing multiple images on our screen right now. i want to continue to do that, some still photographs. the main picture this long line of fires, you explained a little bit. those are fires set by whom? what exactly are we looking at? >> reporter: those fires have been set by opposition protesters themselves. today the end of the running street battles have fallen back to independence square. and they're trying to build up their defenses as best they can. those fires are really the biggest part of that still going at the moment. they have built four of these bon fires, at one point spread out across a very large section of this wide road. really fire, embers giving off incredible heat. it is simply their design to keep the security forces away to make them think twice about trying to enter the square and kick people out. >> as we said, blood has been spilt today. the concern is more blood may be spilt tonight even in this hour. phil we're going to check back with y with you later and and girlfriend give you more context about what is happening and why and what maybe the end result of this. i want to come back here to the united states. a new development in the jordan davis story that may speak volumes about the man who shot and killed jordan davis. we're talking about that man, michael dunn. in his own words tonight from jail, when he was awaiting the trial that would end in convictions on three counts of attempted murder but a hung jury on the murder charge itself. prosecutors have now released recordings authorities made of jailhouse phone calls to his fiancee. the fiancee. again these were phone calls before the trial. the woman who was inside the convenience store, his fiancee, when he pumped ten shots into that red suv hitting jordan davis three times. that happened as you know after an argument over loud muse music coming from the vehicle. dunn said he saw what looked like a gun before he opened fire. no gun was found by police. he never mentioned a gun to his fiancee or called police. instead the couple went to the hotel walked their dog and ordered pizza. michael dunn believes the true victim in the case, you're going to hear this from himself, is michael dunn. in this phone call his fiancee tells him she believes he's innocent. here's why. >> i was thinking the same thing. i'm the [ mute ] victim here. i was the one who was victimized. i mean, i don't know how else to cut it. it's like they attacked me. i'm the victim. i'm the victor but i was the victim, too. >> saying that he was attacked. victimhood also figures highly in this next conversation, dunn comparing himself to a rape victim. >> i was the one that was being preyed upon and i fought back. >> right. >> and then it's not quite the same, but it made me think of like the old tv shows and movie s where like how the police used to think when a chick got raped. they're like oh, it's her fault because of the way she was dressed. >> right. >> yeah. so it's my fault because i asked them to turn their music down. it's like i got attacked and i fought back because i didn't want to be a victim. and now i'm in trouble. >> yeah. >> it's like i refused to be a victims and now i'm incarcerated. >> some of michael dunn's jailhouse letters have also been made public, including some that seem to show a preoccupation with race. the jail is full of black and they all act like thugs, he writes in one of them dated july 12th last year. he expressed a similar sentiment in a phone conversation about being in solitary confinement. >> so being in a room by myself kind of sucks. but i guess it would be better than being in a room with them animals. >> dunn now faces at least 60 years behind bars on the attempted murder charges. prosecutors say they intend to retry him on the murder count itself. benjamin crump is fighting the florida self-defense statutes that many say made it easier for dunn to shoot and george zimmerman to kill trayvon martin. he's an attorney for the martin family. >> we hear michael dunn say over and over again that he was the victim in this situation, not jordan davis. when you hear him say this what goes through your mind? >> well, unfortunately you have all these individuals with these imaginary fears of young black men for whatever reason. then when they're held accountable by the law, just being arrested, anderson, then they feel like they're the victim. i'll tell you, they are not more of a victim than jordan davis's family, not more of a victim than trayvon martin's family. >> he also makes comparison between himself and women who have been raped trying to make the point that it was him who was preyed on and who fought back. he kept saying it's like he was attacked. the reality is he was not attacked. >> that's the problem with this whole stand your ground law, anderson. because if you kill the individual and it's only your word against a dead man's word, then you just have to try to come up with the excueses of how much fear you were in and why you should be exonerated and it should be justified you murdering this innocent, unarmed kid. >> i want to bring up something you said yesterday on this program. you said that stand your ground law quote legalizes murder of young black men. can you expand on that a little bit more? those are pretty tough words. what did you mean by that? >> well, even though michael dunn is off the streets, the justice system let him escape criminal liability for killing jordan davis just as george zimmerman escaped criminal liability for killing trayvon martin. so in the end, anderson, what you have when you think about the message that's being portrayed to america, is when you shoot, if you miss you go to jail. that's what jordan davis's killer was convicted of, attempted murder, not for killing jordan. so this stand your ground law really should be called the don't miss law, because if you miss you go to jail but if you kill the young minority then you not held accountable. >> do you believe, though, that stand your ground can be equally used by an african-american youth against a caucasian if he feels threatened by or says he feels threatened by a caucasian person? do you think the law is equally applied in the state of florida? >> well, anderson, where does it happen in america when trayvon martin kills an unarmed george zimmerman or jordan davis kills an unarmed michael dunn and they are not arrested, convicted, of first degree murder and nobody says a word. but when you reverse the roles, it seems that stand your ground laws allows them to be legalized in killing our children. and at the end of the day, these are our children. so people ask why are we so emotional. they can't fathom their children being gunned down even though they're doing everything they legally have the right to do and the killer not going to jail. every black parent in america can imagine that happening to our child and it scares the hell out of us. >> i know it's something you're going to be bringing to the legislature coming up in march. we'll talk to you about it then, too. benjamin crump, appreciate you being on. i want to bronze the conversatico -- broaden the question. we're joined by a new york criminal defense attorney and our own legal team. sunny let me start with you. i know you say you believe there's no question race was involved in this case. >> sure. >> how do these recordings change your opinion or confirm your opinion? >> it just solidifies my opinion. when you listen to the call, he talks about the black people in jail as animals. he writes letters from jail calling black thugs. and i think what was so interesting when he writes the letter to his grandmother and he says, this may sound radical but if others did -- when black people threatened them killed them, maybe they would change their behavior. i mean, i think that speaks volumes about the person's charact character. i'm very clear in my mind his fear was based on the fact these boys were black. when you listen to the phone calls, he says he doesn't even believe they didn't have a criminal record because they were bad. i sat with those boys. i've met those boys. i've met those families. those are good kids, good, decent kids raised in a two-family household -- not that that necessarily matters -- two-parent household rather. and they are just good people. >> charles when you hear those recordings does it change anything? does it confirm something for you? >> i think sunny touched on it. it is a confirmation. and i think the bigger issue here is how people perceive young black bodies, particularly males, young males. and i think that this idea that you could embed or project behaviors onto them, project kind of pait thologies onto tho boys never having met them, doing what teenage boys are doing. full of yourself. ways kind of full of myself. you're out on your own, in the car, that happens. we all have been in a situation where at a stop light or gas station or somewhere where somebody's playing loud music you deal with it. you roll up a window, fill your tank, get your chips or whatever, you move on. this idea that we are creating an environment and a culture that we can now say that fears, whether they are legitimate, whether we actually feel them or whether we manufacture them, that we can use those fears as justification to take out guns and take people's lives, particularly people who are not threatening you. in this case, there's no evidence whatsoever that those boys attacked dunn in any way. that is a very dangerous precedent that we are setting that people, even if he didn't get off completely but got off on the murder charge or not convicted on the murder charge, the fact that people see that as a legitimate excuse or rationale is a problem. >> why weren't those recordings played in court in? prejudicial? >> a lot of times the defense will say it's more prejudice than probative. that's the line. meaning you put it in there it's going to inflame the jury. interesting thing on this discussion listening to ben crump talk this, reminds me in a bizarre way of what used to happen with cocaine in america. remember the cocaine penalties were so draconian when cocaine was in the inner city, when powder cocaine became popular in the 80s and a bunch of white kids at least in california who from middle class and upper middle class families started getting busted, what happens? the legislature all of a sudden changes the penalties. >> not our boys. >> now you get possession of cocaine and it's diversion or deferred entry judgment. it went from a mandatory state prison to something where you didn't even have a record when it gets into the white community. the thing that people i think don't understand until you get it, america is still no matter what anybody says, an extremely racist place. whether you want to accept it or not, i hear the same kinds of talk all the time when people think it's safe to say it. >> that scares me. >> joseph, you say there's no shred of evidence that race played a role in this case. do the tapes change your mind in any way? >> what i mean by that, anderson, thank you so much. and thank you for having me on your program. what i mean by that is, when you look at the jury, you look at the procedure and so forth in this case, i ask the question where in the matter did race play a part in this process? now, we're looking -- we've heard the sound, the audio of mr. dunn. he clearly made some bigoted comments and so forth. so one could conclude that mr. dunn is quite frankly a bigot. but when you look at the trial itself, i asked this esteemed panel of good folks here, where in the trial, until the procedure, was there any bigotry or overt racism? >> it's at the root of the case. >> let him finish then we'll answer your question. >> may i finish. i did not interrupt anyone on this panel. let me also say for a complete transparency i am pro second amendment, i am a concealed weapons holder. i'm pro stand your ground. i am pro civil rights all the way. pro ninth amendment for women's rights and so forth. and at the end of the day as a black american male in this country -- and i've been black and american and male longer than anybody on this panel -- i refuse to not embrace every single right under this great constitution. and that is -- that includes the right to keep and bear arms. >> joseph, let me just ask you. do you believe in the state of florida that the law is equally applied, that if an african-american male argued stand your ground shot a -- if the roles were reversed on this and mr. dunn was african-american and the young men in the car were caucasian, and he said he felt threatened, do you think the law would treat an african-american male who shot a white male the same? >> i would like to think so. let me give you a personal example. florida statute 776.013 is the castle doctrine. on october 16th, 2006, i accidentally left the garage door up for my garage and the door to my house unlocked. a white male intruder came into my home. 3:30 a.m. in the morning. i got up with my .357 magnum with six rounds of hollow point bullets, fired five of them at him. i missed. but had it not been for that, i might not be here having this conversation with you all on this show. so the answer is yes, i have experience experienced these statutes protecting me. let me also say -- let me just say this. i did not like the verdict in zimmerman. and i covered that trial. i think that mr. zimmerman should not have exited the car at all. because that's not how we were trained as concealed weapons holders. >> i don't want to cover the zimmerman again. we've covered it a lot. charles when you hear joseph's argument you don't buy it? >> no. listen, i completely respect the fact that that was his experience. but that's an anecdote, right? the problem with his argument is that it has an evidence problem, which is that all the evidence when you look at it in aggregate shows that there are obvious biases in the system, and including the stand your ground. >> joseph asked the question. where in this trial was it raised? >> it's at the very root of the case. i sat in that courtroom every day. i will tell you that but for the fact that those boys were black, he would not have felt threatened. he made a leap because he saw them, he heard loud music and he immediately felt threatened by this alleged inherent criminality of the black kid. anyone including joseph who doesn't know that and who doesn't see that is very naive and under some -- [ overlapping speakers ] >> one at a time. >> let me just kind of bridge this for you. [ overlapping speakers ] >> mr. dunn might be a bigot. >> he might be a bigot. that's where race played in this. >> you cannot point to anything in this procedure. [ overlapping speakers ] >> joseph you're talking about the procedure, the court procedure. >> i disagree with you and you think i'm confused. >> it seems apples and oranges. you're talking about the procedure itself. what you're talking about, mark and sunny, is the mind of this man. [ overlapping speakers ] >> this judge ran, in my opinion, this judge -- i didn't see anything that was egregious. i didn't see this judge do anything at any point that i could say wow that was just -- i don't disagree with any of that. i'm trying to point out, we can talk about the trial but the trial is only reflective of the society we live in. and the society we live in, whether -- i guess you and i are the only caucasian on this panel right now. and i don't know if you in new york hear the kinds of things that i hear in some of the communities i hang out in. but some of the communities i hang out in, the things that this guy says, the things that are on those phone calls, that's perfectly acceptable. it might not be acceptable right here. >> i was surprised by the things he said. >> listen. nobody is disputing bigotry throughout america. i mean, since 1857 -- >> or the trial in this case. >> we've got to leave it there. appreciate the discussion, though. we will have more. joseph davis, charles blow, sunny, mark good to have you on. let's continue the conversation online. just ahead, we want to talk about the peace talks on syria. stalled in geneva. on the the ground the civil war has gone from bad to worse. o on/* john mccain will join us coming up. the deadly violence. kiev, ukraine, the capital of ukraine, city's independence square in flames. let's take a look at what's behind the unrest is a full-blown revolution under way. we'll talk about it after this. i'm beth... and i'm michelle. and we own the paper cottage. it's a stationery and gifts store. anything we purchase for the paper cottage goes on our ink card. so you can manage your business expenses and access them online instantly with the game changing app from ink. we didn't get into business to spend time managing receipts, that's why we have ink. we like being in business because we like being creative, we like interacting with people. so you have time to focus on the things you love. ink from chase. so you can. i've got a big date, but my sinuses are acting up. it's time for advil cold and sinus. 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[ male announcer ] introducing at&t digital life. personalized home security and automation. get professionally monitored security for just $29.99 a month. with limited availability in select markets. ♪ [ male announcer ] to truck guys, the truck is everything. and when you put them in charge of making an unbeatable truck, good things happen. this is the ram 1500. the 2014 motor trend truck of the year. ♪ and first ever back-to-back champion. guts. glory. ram. the violence still raging in kiev. we're going to have much more on that shortly. first new efforts being made tonight to bring homed only american soldier in captivity, bowe bergdols seized in afghanistan in 2009. believed to be held by the taliban-aligned network inside pakistan. over the years several proof of life videos of bergdol have been released. we are unable to confirm authenticity. a new video has raised concerns about bergdol's health. the taliban has long demanded the release of five prisoners fr from guantanamo in exchange for his release. the u.s. doesn't negotiate with terrorists. that's the official policy. but time may be running out. with u.s. troops set to leave afghanistan by the end of the year, there's the prospect of leaving a man behind. senator john mccain, a form vietnam prisoner of war has been a vocal opponent of negotiating with the taliban in years past. tonight on 360 he has a new position. i spoke to him earlier. >> would you oppose the idea of some form of negotiations or prisoner exchange? in 2012 you called the idea of negotiating with the taliban, bizarre, highly questionable. >> well, at that time the proposal was that they would release taliban, some of them really hard-core, particularly five really hard-core taliban leaders as a confidence-building measure. now this idea is for an exchange of prisoners for our american fighting man. i would be inclined to support such a thing depending on a lot of the details. >> of anybody on capitol hill, you know better than anybody what this young man must be going through. obviously it's a very different time. how do you get through something like this? i mean, for somebody in this situation? >> well, i was fortunate in where he is not that i had fellow p.o.w.s, that even though i was a long time in solitary confinement we would tap on the wall to each other and stay in communication. if it wasn't for that, it would have been a very different story for most of us. and this is why i feel especially sympathetic for mr. bergdol, because he is all there by himself. >> so if there was the possibility of some sort of exchange, that's something you would support? >> i would support. obviously i'd have to know the details, but i would support ways of bringing him home, and if exchange was one of them i think that would be something i think we should seriously consider. >> i want to ask you a few questions about syria. obviously you've been out in front of this for a long time. you and i have spoken about it a lot. recently we've we've seen horrific videos of syrians tortured, starved by this regime. do you see any way that this situation changes anytime soon? >> i do if we take really significant measures, training, arming, equipping and i mean really arming and equipping, including surface to air hand-held missile capabilities. there are no good options. none. but doing nothing, which is basically what we've done, anderson, is the worst of all options. and the president of the united states who said it wasn't a matter of whether but when that bashar al assad would leave and all the ridiculous statements he made in the past was before 5,000 hezbollah came. in and this farce, this joke, this sad tragedy of the geneva agreements thinking that somehow bashar al assad would negotiate his departure when he's winning was just the height of insanity and an insult to the intelligence of all of us who know this. the only thing that bashar will understand will be a shift in the battle field. and also the russians have got to pay a price for continuing this supply. the iranians have to pay a price. hezbollah has to pay a price. if i'm passionate about this, i am passionate about this. and i want to thank you. i want to thank you personally for all the coverage you have given this issue. >> well, we have a video which is obtained by cnn. it's aeks constitution we understand committed not by forces of the assad regime, which god knows they have committed plenty of atrocities, nor by members of the free syrian army but rather by members of the islamic state of iraq in syria, isis. this is not -- or would you say this is what some in the international community have feared most? you now have a situation where moderate groups are having to fight against these radical groups as opposed to fighting even against the assad regime. >> they are fighting a two-front war. by the way, it's interesting that bashar al assad is not attacking those areas that are controlled by isis. but there is a backlash against isis. one the 7,000 foreign fighters are primarily there. this brutality they've been practicing has caused a reaction and a coalition of moderate and islamic groups that are doing -- achieving a little bit of success. but they need a lot of help. we've got to take out these helicopters that are dropping these barrel bombs. can you imagine dropping these barrel bombs that are just cluster -- crude cluster bombs indiscriminately killing people? when is the united states of america going to show some leadership? when is the president of the united states going to look at history and say, how is history going to judge me and this country when we've we simply did not -- watched these people die by now 130,000. it is a regional conflict. and it's going to spread. >> 130,000 dead. as always you can find more on the story at cnn.com. coming up next we're going to take you back to ukraine. the capital kiev in flames. you see the images there. rebellion spreading across the country. going to give you context about what is going on. what the demonstrators want, what the government wants. later with billions of tax dollars at stake, your money, lobbyists who are literally in bed with congress. big money influence pedestrian peddlars with the inside track. my name is jenny, and i quit smoking with chantix. before chantix, i tried to quit probably about five times. it was different than the other times i tried to quit. 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[ male announcer ] ask your doctor if chantix is right for you. welcome back. early hours of the morning, the center of one of eastern europe's major cities is still in flames. take a look the a timages. ukrainian forces moving hard tonight on protesters in independence square. a crisis appears to be spreading right now. want to go back to the phone and phil black who is in kiev tonight. also joining us former cnn correspondent jim dougherty. phil, we spoke at the top of the show. explain the situation now. the images we're seeing, the flames still burning there in independence square. >> indeed. just about 3:30 a.m. local time. there are still thousands of people here, anderson. they're all working most of them in one way or another. they're either fuelling those big bon fires that you can see, building up barricades, stand g sentry at the frontline with shields and batons or literally tearing up the roads, the buildings, forming huge piles of rubble which are really ammunition they say they're prepared to use if riot police try to move through here and retake the square. those fires have actually spread into a building, a multistory building overlooking the square. you can see the outside of the fire, outside of the building not badly damaged. but inside that fire is darting the billing as we speak. it is the building that these opposition protesters have been using as their main headquarters for the last few months, anderson. >> jill, my understanding the russians want the ukraine economy tied to moscow, not the your wean union which is what the protesters want. they want it tied to the european union. explain to people why this is important. >> it's extremely important. because ukraine is a very big country. it's right on the eastern part of europe between europe and russia. it's just east of poland. it has a population of 45 million people. so geographically it's as big as france, the population of spain. and it is really a titanic struggle between the east and west, between the e.u. and the u.s. versus russia. unfortunately as you look at these pictures, we could very easily be headed towards civil war. and that would be a disaster. >> what are the possible ways that this could get resolved, jill? i mean, some sort of obviously negotiations tonight seemed to end without anything being resolved. >> they could. but that seems to be the case. because they have come to the point of and over again where it seemed to be resolved by offering different positions. for instance when the prime minister stepped down, the president offered a prime ministership to the opposition. but the opposition turned it down. they don't want it. and right now you have russia in a really zero sum fight, an economic fight, offering to bail out. remember that happened in december. russia said look, we've we'll give you $15 billion to rescue you if you will come our way, if you will join our trade union and not join the e.u. but ukraine was trying to play both sides against the middle. and as the demonstrations continued, they decided that russia pulled that money, was freezing that money. now it's giving that money back. it is saying we're going ahead with that. as i read that, anderson, it looks as if they believed that the new prime minister which could be decided this week will be a pro-russian person. so you have a total tug-of-war between east and west. >> phil, is there a sense of how much support the protesters have or the government have? does one have more than the other? >> it is difficult to say just across the country, anderson, or to speak for the country as a whole. certainly here in kiev, it's the west of the countries, we know the mission of these protesters has the most support. we know that these are the people that see themselves as being western-leaning, more european. they want these values, they want that economy, they want their country to have that sort of democracy. east of the country it is culturally, ethically more russian. president's power base. his heartland. so that is the crisis. that is why this is so difficult to resolve this. this is a divided country. and the next few days could determine whether or not that divide becomes greater and potentially rips the nation apart. >> phil black, be careful tonight. thank you for reporting for us there. jill dougherty as well. just ahead tonight, in the world of washington lobbyists have the closest connections of all. they're actually related to the lawmakers that their clients want to influence. we're keeping them honest tonight. 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[ female announcer ] ask your doctor about crestor. if you can't afford your medication, astrazeneca may be able to help. if you can't afford your medication, isn't easy, and it isn't the end. capella university is designed around your profession, giving you what you need to go further, to your point "c". capella university. start your journey at capella.edu. if you're already a little jaded about washington, this will not help. but it's something you need to know about. all year long we'll be keeping them honest about money, influence and power in the nation's capitol. we're working with a nonprofit group called the government accountability institute. tonight cnn's drew griffin takes a hard look at lobbying, not just the thousands of run of the mill lobbyists who earn a healthy living in washington. we're talking about influence lawmakers in powerful positions whose family members actually lobby congress ma. here's drew's report. >> reporter: for some of the most powerful people in washington, people you vote into office, power and influence are a family affair. >> you take somebody like harry reid, for example, the majority leader in the senate. he has three sons and a son-in-law all of whom have been registered lobbyists. same thing in missouri with republican roy blount whose wife and several of his children are registered lobbyists. >> reporter: reid and blount's family lobbying ties are legendary but neither has a monopoly. according to a congressional watchdog tracking service, since 2001, 100 federally registered lobbyists related to 78 members of congress have worked on lobbying contracts worth nearly $2 billion. that's 100 congressional family members related to these 78 members of congress. and transparency campaigner peter schweitzer says every one of those family lobbyists got paid. >> it's not just about staying in office because you like the power. it's about staying in office because it generates huge amounts of cash for your family. >> reporter: but official registered lobbying by family members is only one part of this family business, and one of the only parts you can track. nick neihard heads public campaign, a group trying to get special interest money out of politics. campaign donations, lobbying, schmoozing, that's easy to track, he says. there is something much more subtle yet larger going on in d.c. big government contractors seem to have a lot of congressional relatives on their staffs. it's just not talked about. >> it just seems like it's one big inside game. >> well, i think that's right. this town is built on that kind of inside game. >> reporter: want an example? take christie clemens rogers. four years ago she married the powerful chairman of the house intelligence committee, michigan congressman mike rogers. up until 2012, she was also the ceo of the american branch of e aegis, a defense and security contracting firm. where according to her new firm she successfully developed and led a two-year pursuit to win a five-year, $10 billion contract under the department of state's worldwide protective services program." and yes, it's an area her husband's committee has congressional oversight, making sure diplomats and their staffs are properly protected. you would think congressman mike rogers would at least disclose that family connection, or that in appearing before congress christie rogers would disclose her marital ties. but on his web site, congressman rogers only states he's in fact married, no name. and christie rogers in an appearance before a presidential commission back in 2010 didn't mention the name of the man she just married, even though she missed her first appearance due to her honeymoon. >> it was an unfortunate perfect storm. i had just come off my honeymoon. that was not the perfect storm. >> reporter: the congressman declined our interview request, and his press secretary set us straight in this e-mail, telling us this is all old news. christie rogers is not a lobbyist, she writes, and is not engaging in those activities. she has also never met with any member of congressman rogers' staff or staff members of the intelligence committee in any professional capacity on any issue". kristi rogers is now the managing director of federal government affairs and public policy from annette, phelps and phillips. she just happens to work for a firm that does extensive lobbying. on its web site touts its strong relationships in congress with a solid record of success in securing legislation and federal funding on behalf of clients. >> it's this kind of conflict of interest that leads to this deep distrust. what we are told constantly by the members is, i never talk to my spouse about this issue. i never talk to her on this business. there's a firewall between me and my sons who are lobbyists. do you buy that? >> well, whether you buy it or not, here's the question of the appearance. i'm sure there's some reality. i can't quite believe that members of congress don't care about the fortunes of their family members. >> reporter: and the fortunes go both ways. mike rogers' wife kristi becomes ceo of defense contractor, then is hired by a lobbying firm. rogers becomes chairman of the house intelligence committee, and according to the federal election commission, political donations from the d the defense industry qaudruple. all legal, within the rules, all routine in the family business of washington. >> drew joins us now. drew as you said, this is all somewhat routine in washington. almost taken for granted. but the numbers are astounding. >> so normal inside the beltway we hear the same thing every time we go there. this is old news to them. they don't think there's anything wrong. d.c. is a family town. these family connections are very important. and the examples are everywhere you look, both parties. it's why people elected to office when they leave office they don't leave washington. >> unbelievable. drew, thanks very much. olympic skier bode miller breaks down that post-race interview on nbc. you probably heard about this. when asked repeatedly about his late brother. the question is did the reporter go too far? 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[ male announcer ] that's why there's ocuvite. ocuvite helps replenish key eye nutrients. ocuvite has a unique formula that's just not found in any leading multivitamin. help protect your eye health with ocuvite. instead of paying too much for an ipad, i got the surface 2. first of all, it comes with office and outlook. then, with free skype calls to phones in over 60 countries, i can talk to my cousins any time. and then, i got 200 gigs of cloud storage -- free -- so i can get my photos and stuff almost anywhere. others charge for that. surface is such a great deal. i feel like i should tell somebody. hey! ♪ honestly ♪ i want to see you be brave ♪ olympic skier bode miller speaking out about an interview. a reporter asked him repeatedly about the death of his brother last year until he broke down in tears. >> how much to come up with a great performance for him? and was it for him? >> i don't know if it's really for him. but i wanted to come here and, i don't know, i guess make myself prou proud. >> when you're look up in the sky at the start we see you there. and it just looks like you're talking to somebody. what's going on there? >> cooper got criticized online for that interview. miller sticking up for her. he says had doesn't blame her for asking those questions. today miller sat down with rachel nichols host of cnn's "unguarded". >> you had a pretty emotional interview with kristen cooper. got a lot of controversy back in the states afterward. people back home felt that she pushed you too far asking about your brother. >> i felt like it was me, not her. she asked questions that i feel like with her knowledge of my brother and the situation i felt like were pretty normal questions. i mean, maybe in hindsight from other people's perspective, i think she kept pushing a little bit. but i've known kristen for a long time. i think she's really comfortable with me. i felt terrible that she was getting just massacred in the press and in social media. but i think in the end people will sort of see thought was more me just dealing with all these emotions and the buildup of several years of very tough personal life stuff. >> you tweeted sort of to defend her. you said it's not her fault, you said it's me. >> i think it caught everybody a little bit by surprise, myself included. i didn't know my reaction was going to be that strong. and i really appreciate the support i got from social media and from people. because i think it was very authentic and people are protective and they don't like seeing somebody suffer. but invariably that's what happens. it was just -- i was suffering and it wasn't anybody's fault i don't think. >> there's a lot of people outside of skiing who don't know your brother's story. he had a motorcycle crash, how long was it? >> it was '06. and yeah, it was really super tough on all of us. because we didn't know if he was going to even recover or be alleve or anythi aalleve or anything. after he recovered over the course of six or seven years, he had five seizures, six seizures. not a lot but all kind of critical. one on a chair lift and fell off the chair lift from like 40 feet up, one just after he'd been on the highway which would have been awful. so it's not that we knew something was ever going to happen. we all hoped thought would be fine. but it was just a really tuough thing to go through. >> during that time as he was dealing with the seizures, he's also a great snowboarder and had hoped to join you at these olympics. what conversations did you guys have about that? >> he set his goal to come to these olympics. that was part of the reason why i was staying with it and coming back to continue to race so we would be here together. and hopefully win together. >> and when he did have the seizures and died from that, did that make you rethink coming to these olympics? >> it it didn't change my feelings about the olympics at all. it just was an emotional moment that kind of like -- emotions i think just live inside of you no matter. what but when you have that kind of -- it's just a -- you can feel like a ball of energy in there. i didn't really intentionally do it. but it certainly came out in that super g. to look back on it now, it probably made the difference for me between getting a medal and not. but the real part of it hits afterwards when you deal with the consequences of really living those emotions. it was really pretty raw and pretty painful. >> if you do think that thinking of him and that experience is what pushed you over the edge in the superg is a nice part of that he helped you do that? >> yes. and if you lose a family member, a loved one, i don't think there's anything more sort of to honor their memory than to use that memory and the love for them to do something that maybe you couldn't do otherwise. and that felt great, but it also was painful. >> bode miller talking to our rachel nichols. we'll be right back. hey guys! sorry we're late. did you run into traffic? no, just had to stop by the house to grab a few things. you stopped by the house? uh-huh. yea. alright, whenever you get your stuff, run upstairs, get cleaned up for dinner. you leave the house in good shape? yea. yea, of course. ♪ [ sportscaster talking on tv ] last-second field go-- yea, sure ya did. [ male announcer ] introducing at&t digital life. personalized home security and automation. get professionally monitored security for just $29.99 a month. with limited availability in select markets. ♪ with limited availability in select markets. a steel cage: death match of midsize sedans. the volkswagen passat against all comers. turbocharged engines against...engines. best in class rear legroom against other-class legroom. but then we realized. consumers already did that. twice. huh. maybe that's why nobody else showed up. how does one get out of a death cage? vo: hurry in and lease the 2014 passat s for $189 a month which includes a $500 bonus. i hope you join us one hour from now at 10:00 p.m. eastern for another edition of "ac 360." thanks for watching. "piers morgan live" starts now. this is cnn breaking news. >> this is "piers morgan live." breaking news tonight, at least 21 dead as police and protesters battle in the heart of a european capital 641 miles away from the olympics in sochi. we'll go live to ukraine and talk to former new york mayor rudy giuliani what this will mean for america. i'll ask ability his appearance on the new "tonight show" with jimmy fallon. a plastic surgeon is changing the lives of children bullied because of their looks. cover girl
good evening. it's anyone's guess how this ends up, but tonight just over 600 miles to our north and west in a neighboring nation to russia, while russia is hosting these winter olympic games, there has been terrible bloodshed in the beautiful city of kiev in the politically divided nation of ukraine. police today were given the go-ahead to fire on demonstrators with live ammunition and they did. demonstrators who side more with europe than moscow have been in this pitched fiery battle with cops for days, months actually, but it just turned truly violent since we've been here. our chief foreign correspondent richard engel is there to start us off. good evening. >> reporter: good evening, brian. just last night we were talking about a truce. it didn't last long. in fact, we watched it unravel in front of us. and today was the deadliest day since this protest movement began. around 70 demonstrators and at least three police killed today and hundreds wounded. protesters charged police lines in innocence square this morning. suddenly, the police were in retreat. protesters in small groups advanced. but they were picked off. this man, shot in the leg. police fired on demonstrators, some with high-powered rifles. but then we saw the dedication that is keeping this movement alive. the protesters confused their charge, peering around corners, dodging bullets, diving for cover, recovering their wounded under fire. they paid a price for it. we watched them come back, limping, on stretchers, some unconscious, others dead. the wounded were rushed to a nearby hotel. in the lobby, a nurse tends to one man. another could not be saved. it's a snake shift field hospital, short staffed with few supplies. a body left by the front desk. back outside, as the shooting subsided, the demonstrators moved to take new ground while they could and build new barricades, and stockpile more weapons, molotov cocktails and rocks. the advance had been costly but it worked. the protesters expanded their terrain. this is the protester's new front line. the riot police have now withdrawn from this area in central kiev, but the demonstrators clearly worry that they could come back. and that's why they're reinforcing their defenses. alex, a 23-year-old financial consultant, helps guard the front line. how do you think this is going to end? where does this go from here? >> maybe a little more victims, i guess, but finally the democracy will win. >> reporter: the war drums here are beating. there is little mood anymore for truces. >> we want to destroy this criminal government. >> reporter: it was the bloodiest day in this three-month struggle against the government. the toll is written on their faces. but the opposition here is still calling it a victory. there are still thousands of demonstrators in this square tonight, brian, and so far it has only been the police involved in the crackdown. the army has been staying out of it. brian? >> richard engel who we watched cover combat in iraq and afghanistan and now hard to believe the streets of kiev. richard, thank you for your day of reporting. late today, vice president joe biden spoke with ukraine's president by phone. and diplomatically, of course, the subtext here isn't complex. here we are again. the u.s. and russia, the west and what became of what we used to call the eastern bloc. nbc's andrea mitchell monitoring all of it from our washington newsroom tonight. andrea, good evening. >> reporter: good evening. all of this is just incredible. the white house, infuriated, says it's outraged by the government's firing automatic weapons on its own people. but while the vice president in the call urged restraint, ukraine's leader is hearing a very different message from vladimir putin's russia. in kiev, raucous protesters capture a dozen riot police, marching them across the square, while fending off who want to lynch them. and beyond the capital, the firestorm of anti-government protests is spreading. near the polish border, the command post has taken over. but ukraine's president is resisting appeals from the u.s. and its allies, rebuffing a delegation of foreign ministers, from europe, ignoring president obama. ukraine's military even refusing repeated calls from defense secretary hagel. >> there needs to be mediation here, but first and foremost, the government has to pull back, not fire upon its citizens. >> reporter: the u.s. has imposed sanctions on ukraine, and today europe upped the and they, freezing. president yanukovych is listening to moscow and putin. putin's prime minister urged ukraine to be tougher, saying so people don't wipe their feet on the authorities like a door mat. the message to yanukovych, don't compromise. >> and it is very clear that the russian leadership feels it's their right to do what they want and not our right to be involved at all. >> reporter: tonight, european foreign ministers still in kiev are trying desperately to mediate with both sides, hoping to avoid more bloodshed. brian? >> andrea mitchell in our washington newsroom, thanks. with the tension overseas about our lead story last night, new scrutiny on shoes for airline passengers coming into the u.s. from overseas. tonight, our justice correspondent pete williams is telling us that this new threat involves a bomb maker associated with al qaeda in yemen. he has been behind previous creative but failed attacks. this new scrutiny is because they fear he has come up with a more sophisticated design and thus the new screening now of international incoming passengers. as we said on the top of the broadcast where the weather in the u.s. is concerned it gets worse. hard to believe, like a tornado warning as far south as memphis earlier tonight, part of a huge 30-state wide storm system that also brought a foot of snow to eden prairie up in minnesota. and it must be bad because weather channel meteorologist jim cantore is out in it in nashville. good evening. >> yeah, brian, it will get wild in the next couple of hours. let's talk about this. a giant storm, just when we get a break from the arctic chill, this one stretches all the way canada down to the gulf coast. let's cover this, we already had severe thunderstorms that produced tornadoes tonight over springfield, illinois, where there is snow on the ground, amazingly enough. that whole storm system severe threat continues tonight and heads all the way to the east coast for friday. now the snowy part. minneapolis could see 5 to 8 inches of snow. that may be the biggest storm system of the season. the problem is the mounting snowpack across this entire area. and once this all melts we'll have big problems with flooding. just in case you were wondering if it's ever going to cool down again, it is. 78 today for a record-tying high in nashville, tennessee. by next wednesday, brian, we will be lucky if we make to it 28. the deep freeze coming back to the east in a week. >> jim cantore in nashville for us tonight, thank you, jim. here in sochi, women took center stage today. a live audience watching on nbc saw what happened to the u.s. women's hockey team. and fair warning for all of those households who are planning to watch figure skating tonight in prime time who do not want to know what happens. time to mute. give us about two minutes. that's some introduction for nbc's chris jansing, who is here to cover all the rest of the games for us. chris, good evening. >> good evening, brian. let's talk about that hockey game. it would be hard to overstate the passion that team usa put into this game. half that team competed and lost in vancouver and spent the past several years getting ready for the rematch. it was a game that exceeded the hype. one of sport's great and most bitter rivalries was all out there on the ice. fast, physical, team usa skating against canada with the revenge for the loss in vancouver on their minds. with five minutes to go, up 2-0, it looked like they would get it. but canada mounted a stunning combat, scoring with the less than 3:30 to go. a heart stopping u.s. shot through an open net just missed, and 30 seconds later, canada scores. the game went into sudden death overtime. >> the gold medal to canada! >> reporter: canada's momentum ended in a devastating 3-2 loss for the americans. looks of disbelief and disappointment as they were awarded silver. >> they were so close, so close. >> reporter: simultaneously on the figure skating ice, another intense finish. defending champion yuna kim of south korea, who was first in the short program, upset by adelina sotnikova, the first russian to ever win gold. and gracie gold just missed a medal after a slip on the triple flip. and you kept smiling. >> you know, it really was not just a fake smile or trained smile. i was really having fun. >> reporter: but it's the first time no americans have medaled in men's or women's skating since 1936. americans have dominated the new x games sports in sochi, and maddie bowman won gold in the first ever women's halfpipe. and the women ended their day on the podium. two american teams on the podium tonight, how awesome. >> it's so incredible. we wouldn't want it any other way. >> reporter: for the first time taking two medals, silver and bronze in bobsled, thrilled, though a few still itching for gold. >> i can't end on those runs. i will try to talk everyone to coming back with me. >> reporter: are you coming back? >> we'll see what happens. >> i wouldn't mess with her. >> you see them here, you will see me here. >> yeah? >> yeah. >> reporter: and our nominee for photo finish of these games, check it out. right before the ski cross quarterfinal finish, a big crash. three racers go down and slide over the line. it was the russian in the yellow bib that was ruled the runner-up. and so brian, just incredible finishes happen to be your thing, today was your day at these olympics. >> unbelievable. chris jansing, thanks for all of it. still ahead for us tonight, what's in the water. weeks after a chemical spill, officials say it's safe, but lot of people won't go near it. families are afraid, some say it is even making them sick. it has been six weeks now since authorities in charleston, west virginia warned people not to bring the water after that big chemical spill into a nearby river. while the warning was lifted ten days later, a lot of people didn't believe it because the water still smelled and they did not think it was safe. and now, the governor is calling for much more rigorous testing, we get our report tonight from nbc's tom costello. >> reporter: the line for free bottled water at this charleston distribution center starts as a trickle each morning and then picks up midday. stephanie gregory came with her 14 month-old. >> i'm not going to drink smelly water. i'm not going to cook with smelly water. i'm not going to bathe myself or my kids in smelly water. >> reporter: six weeks since the 10-gallon chemical spill left sent hundreds of people to hospitals and left 300,000 without tap water, the state insists the water has been safe for weeks. but many people aren't convinced. on monday, an elementary school closed early after teachers complained of headaches and smelling the licorice odor associated with the chemical mchm. after filling up his water jugs, lou tyree took us to his home. at the moment i don't smell anything. >> reporter: lou and belinda tyree say they smell it in their shower and faucet every day, but not all day. do either one of you trust the water right now? >> no. >> not for drinking. for bathing, not drinking or cooking. >> reporter: one of the country's biggest independent labs has tested 800 water samples tested from homes and businesses. so far the chemical levels are either undetected or far below the cdc's warning level. is the odor alone a sign that there are unacceptable levels of this toxic chemical? >> it could be one sign, but not necessarily the only sign. you won't know unless you get it tested. >> reporter: still, the mayor of charleston is concerned. >> try to get people to come to this city and to stay here, and we're going to run into trouble because of this. >> reporter: the center for disease control insists the water is safe for everyone to drink. but to reassure residents and to limit any potential economic damage, the city is sing out-of-state lab to test the water yet again. tom costello, nbc news, charleston. and we're back in just a moment with the big decision that researchers have reversed themselves on for the first time in memory. walter ehlers has died. he was a recipient of the medal of honor, and until today the last surviving recipient from the omaha beach invasion. walt grew up in kansas. he was so young when he signed up to go fight, he needed his mother's permission. he saw a lot of action in world war ii, but he stood out in the fighting in the countryside of france in the days after d-day. despite being wound lead separate times, he took out several german gun crews single-handedly, and at one point drew all the incoming fire upon himself to allow his men to withdraw with the wounded. a month later he learned he had passed by the body of his older brother, roland, who never made it off the omaha beach. walt ehlers died with a german bullet still in his right leg. he was 92, and among the best men any of us could ever know. his death leaves 75 living recipients now of the medal of honor. safety researchers in the u.s. predicted a decade ago that because of our aging population boom, that traffic accidents would increase. now in a rare event they have admitted they have been proven wrong. they say in fact today's drivers age 70 and older are less likely to be involved in a crash than previous generations. the feds attribute it to healthier seniors and safer vehicles. also on the roads, the scourge of potholes in all the cities where winter has been especially cruel this year. in places like cincinnati to pittsburgh, they're organizing pothole-filling blitzes after the problem got so bad. in new york city they have now filled more than 113,000 potholes in the last two months alone, and i'm here to tell you there is 113,000 more on the northbound west side highway alone. the folks who struggle these days to figure out what businesses are worth in the web era are going to have further struggles with this one. facebook is buying the text messaging app called whatsapp for $16 billion. and if you think that is a higher valuation than companies like american airlines, campbell's soup and ralph lauren, think about the fact that whatsapp has 450 million customers worldwide, a lot of them overseas. while users only pay a dollar a year and the company sells no advertising, at least this way facebook doesn't let it get away, and now it gets a whack at some new customers. turns out instagram was a bargain at just a billion dollars. and a quick note about one of our own. last night there was a gathering in washington to mark the retirement of shelley fielman. after 50 years with nbc as a cameraman. shelly was standing on the sidewalk the day ronald reagan exited the washington hilton. shelly's steady pictures with his camera on his shoulder became part of our national evidence of the assassination attempt. he was also there when lee harvey oswald was shot in dallas. he covered vietnam, the gulf war, civil rights, and he took care of all of us on the other side of the camera. shelley, well done and thanks. up next tonight, after another break, the american athlete who can teach us a thing or two about making a comeback. finally tonight, as the olympics start to wind down here in sochi, as was the case in the last olympics in london, will begin the next games, the paralympics, winter games, 77 americans on team usa, among them, the california snowboarder who is all about the impossible. we get his story tonight from nbc's kevin tibbles. >> reporter: take a look. the grit and perseverance of evan strong. but this 27-year-old walking the tight rope to sochi is missing something many might think is vital. do you ever forget you don't have a leg? >> all the time. i definitely forget i use a prosthetic. and sometimes i trip myself. i'll look down and whoa! where did that thing come from? >> reporter: as a kid, the skateboard was his passion, a competitor and champion. then just before his 18th birthday while riding a motorcycle, evan was hit by a car. >> having my leg amputated, the accident flipped my world upside down. >> reporter: even on the operating table, he fought to compete. >> he said no, i need my knee and if we can work this out together and you let me keep my knee, i'm determined, i absolutely give you my word as a man that i will use this knee. >> it was his strength that kind of pulled us through that entire ordeal. >> reporter: not the other way around? >> no. i mean, you would think it's the parents' job to support the children. we were kind of like basket cases. >> reporter: within a year, this determined kid was back at it, setting small goals. >> the first time getting on my board and getting to fly? freedom. >> i knew at that point that everything was going to be okay. >> reporter: using this jerry rigged gate in his backyard, the passion for another board was born, the snowboard. in the para-snowboard cross, strong has been a champion and an x game gold medallist. >> put your leg up! >> reporter: his injury also brought out something else, the desire to teach other amputees about their possibilities. >> i'm going to be here for you. >> reporter: adaptive action sports, a nonprofit founded by daniel gayle and evan's teammate amy purdy shows people with permanent disability there's is a place for them in the world of action sports. >> when they can see and know that you can do these things and you get to watch somebody do that, it's definitely a lot harder for a life changing accident or a life changing situation to get the best of you. >> reporter: evan wants to give that lesson to others. >> i feel like a little kid again. >> you don't know how strong you are until you're forced to be strong. >> reporter: for evan strong, nothing is going to slow him down. kevin tibbles, nbc news, nevada city, california. >> and on that note that is our broadcast on a thursday night. thank you for being here with us. i'm brian williams reporting from the olympic winter games. a reminder, prime time coverage begins tonight at 8:00, 7:00 central. we, of course, hope you will join us back here tomorrow night once again. good night. nbc bay area news starts now. you're not only ruined the life of mr. stow, the obvious victim in this matter, but his children, his spouse, his family. >> southern california judge makes his feelings known before sentencing the two men who brutally beat bryan stow. while many are saying the two got off easy. good evening, and thanks for joining us. i'm jessica aguirre. >> and i'm raj mathai. the two men pleaded guilty in that brutal parking lot attack of stow, stow himself not well enough to leave his parents' home. nbc bay area is in san jose this evening. and the judge had some harsh words for these attackers. >> reporter: yeah, very harsh words. adding that on his many years on the bench he almost never makes comments, but that this is the kind of case that deserves to be aex sepgs. their faces registered no emotion, even as the judge called the attackering complete cowards for sucker punching and beating stow even after he lost consciousness. >> you didn't even engage in a fair fight. you had to overtake him in that way. >> reporter: while both remained expressionless, marvin looks at the judge. sanchez, sentenced to eight years looked just about everywhere else, and
u.s. says russian president vladimir putin himself a cold war kgb agent has mobilized 6,000 of his own forces. many have swept across the border and into crimea in orange and seized control. chilling standoffs now unfolding in military bases. ukrainian troops refusing to surrender to invading fors who stand armed and ready a few feet away. so far the stalemates are peaceful but international tensions are growing by the hour. around the world the crisis is having a devastating blow on the global economy. here in the united states, dow futures dropped a staggering 120 points ahead of the opening bell. let's bring in cnn chief business correspondent christine romans. she has the latest from new york. ominous signs. >> reporter: markets around the world are moving in a very big way. asian stocks closed lower. european stocks tumbled. the russian stock market down 11%. wolf, the central bank in russia had an emergency interest rate hike to try to prevent damage to the economy there. the ruble at a record low. clearly there's diplomatic pressure on vladimir putin that's coming from markets as much as it's coming from the west. let me show you here what's happening in these other markets. grain prices higher, oil prices up 3%. big moves for one day. wheat prices up almost 5%. corn up 2.3%. big move there. gold prices up about 2%. so you can see around the world different assets are moving as money is moving quickly. russian businessmen tweeted money doesn't love war. and that's what you see, people trying to find a place to put their money. some of those raw commodities very interesting, look you might not know this but ukraine is a top exporter of wheat and grain and in the oil patch, take a look at the pipeline, we got a map for you, pipelines that want go through ukraine from russia to europe about 25% of russian exports go to europe and half of that goes to those pipelines that go through ukraine. you can see the uncertainty something at play in all the markets today. >> those warm water ports in crimea for russia the only warm water ports they have. christine romans thanks very much. in just a moment we'll check in over at the white house. first the latest from crimea itself. let's go to our correspondent on the ground. what's the latest, diana? >> reporter: hi, wolf. the new ukrainian naval commander because the old one defected just a few days ago and transferred the pro russian kiev side, the new commander says that ten naval and military bases across crimea are now under the control of russian forces and we've also heard reports of attacks on border posts along the east of crimea. our own ben weidmann is on the way there. most of these takeovers have been very peaceful, very strange standoff. where soldiers are just basically standing around but it still means this entire continent is under their control. they are wearing no kind of military insignia but there's little doubt as to who they are. ukraine's military is on high alert this morning according to u.s. and ukrainian officials thousand of russian ground and naval forces occupy the crimean peninsula with troops surrounding several bases and demanding ukrainian forces surrender and hand over their weapons. the ukrainian military is mobilizing troops and calling on reservists to report for duty. ukrainian prime minister faces a wider invasion by russia. >> this is a declaration of war. >> reporter: ukraine's prime minister said they need support but nato is pushing for peaceful diplomacy. >> we urge all parties to your gently to continue all efforts to move away from this dangerous situation. i call on russia to de-escalate tensions. >> reporter: putin is defending his actions. he argues russia is only trying protect russian speaking people and its interests in the region including a valuable naval base. outrage over russia's moves is mounting. as western nations accuse mr. putin of violating international law and ignoring warnings not to intervene. the only aggression that we've seen, wolf, has been towards us. a lot of pro russians on these streets are very angry at journalists who theshl are telling a false story. what you have here is not so much a region at war but you have a war of information going on between those who are watching russian television and those who are getting their news from the west, wolf. >> diana, thanks very much. a complicated situation in crimea to be sure. for president obama the escalating stalemate could become the greatest crisis at least national security crisis of his presidency. he's dispatching the secretary of state john kerry to kiev. let's check in with our white house correspondent. >> reporter: secretary kerry is making tough statements. he'll travel to ukraine and meet with new leaders there and offer strong u.s. support. the senior administration officials too have been making these, offering these warnings hammering russian president put decision-making on this saying he miscalculated as well as beefing up warnings that we will isolate with other nations russia internationally. the secretary of state is preparing for an emergency trip to the center of the crisis. it comes after president obama and his national security team worked through the weekend of the dangerous escalating situation in ukraine. the president spoke by phone with leaders of canada, france, germany, poland, the uk after an hour and a half call with vladimir putin himself. senior administration officials say obama flatly rejected putin's reasons for entering ukraine and taking over crimea, telling him to back out. but also offering ways forward through dialogue or international monitors to make sure the russian speaking people are protected under ukraine's new government. secretary of state john kerry didn't hold back on russia's move in a string of tv appearances. >> it's an incredible act of aggression. it's a stunning willful choice by president putin to invade another country. it's a 19th-century act in the 21st century. >> reporter: russia's action comes after ukraine's president was ousted last week after a reject in a deal with the european union meaning closer ties to the u.s. and away from russia. secretary kerry said ten other nations along with u.s. are prepared to sanction russia, to go to the hilt to isolate it economically. now the administration cancelled trade talks with russia and has backed out of meetings leading to the g-8 in sochi in june. so for all the work and warnings coming from the u.s. it appears that possibly germany has found that off-ramp to russia's force. in a statement saying president vladimir putin has accepted germany's proposal to form a contact group of fact finding mission and a dialogue on ukraine. that said it's being reported that chancellor angela merkel said that after a call with putin she felt he didn't have a grip on the reality of the situation. wolf? >> the reality of the situation is not very nice let's put it that way. michele kosinski thanks. russia's acting prime minister said it won't giveaway crimea. christiane amanpour is joining us now. you had an exclusive interview with you krin's former prime minister. what's his message? >> reporter: this is the very well-known female politician, you're right former prime minister but also a very powerful politician right now. she was released just last weekend in what led to the ousting of viktor yanukovych. she's very close to power and pulling a lot of strings and she literally begged for the united states and europe to help ukraine remain whole. she said and it has been reported on the russian media and we're looking into this to fully confirm it that the russian parliament is currently debating annexing crimea. she's saying that, though and is literally appealing for help to make that not happen and for the west to stand by ukraine. when i pushed her on what she wanted from the west, was it military intervention, what was it she wouldn't go that far but she said look we are unable, us ukrainians to militarily face off against russia. and if it's going to come to that we need some help otherwise this is going to be a huge, huge destabilizing move not just for ukraine and russia in that region built the whole world. wolf, it's laurelly no overstatement to say that this confrontation over ukraine is the most serious east-west confrontation since the end of the cold war with far reaching ramifications if both sides don't cool down and russia can't be persuaded to remove its troops which are now controlling crimea and the big worry is whether they might go into other parts of eastern ukraine as well. >> we have a little exsfrermt your interview with the former prime minister of ukraine. let me play it for our viewers right now. >> translator: in hard times ukraine is left on its own and is given to -- when russia is allowed to take away crimea then the world will change and not only politics and life in ukraine will change but politics and life will change practically every where in the world. and then we have to accept to state that in 21st century one country, an aggressor can violate all the international agreements, take away territories whenever she likes. we can't afford this in the world. that's why if the instruments of diplomacy won't work, if all the negotiations and instruments weren't working and personal relations with mr. putin won't work, the world has to supply strongest means. >> miss yulia tymoshenko it sounds like you're raising the stakes and calling for the west, u.s., britain to use military force against russia. am i read ug correctly? is that what you're calling for? >> translator: i am asking all the world personally every world leader to, to use all the possibilities in order to avoid ukraine losing crimea. so, she says the strongest means and you pressed her appropriately does she mean military action from nato and the west? we didn't get a term response from her, did we? >> reporter: no because she's not going to say that publicly. that would be raising the stakes. what's happening right now is presumably not just pressure on russia to pull back militarily but also pressure to try to convince ukrainians not to do anything that would give russia a pretext to step up its military intervention as it is right now. when i asked her, so if that is happening and she also said we're trying not to give russia any more pretext but russia is continuing in this regard, i said to her what about this order that's gone out calling all able bodied men in ukraine to report for military training and it's starting today. she said look if they take crimea and this becomes a military confrontation then she said ukrainians will die to preserve the sanctity and unity of their country. ukrainians already have died and they will continue to do so even though she knows that there is no winning against russia at least not in the short term in any kind of formal military confrontation with russia. so right now, all these foreign ministers who are meeting in brussels and secretary kerry is going, more meeting, there are a lot of further diplomatic and economic trade and all sorts of sanctions that can be racetrack cheated up against russia and many are saying this is what needs to happen. a ratcheting up of all believers of the united states and the rest of the world, you know, eu have to use against russia. you know russia has its economy fully tied into the world now, fully tied into europe and the rest of the world. so any kind of sanctions and any kind of pulling out of business ties would really, really hurt russia and people are calling for those to be applied now. >> given the integration of these economic developments, between russia, europe, the united states, asia, that's why we're seeing a serious downturn in the dow futures as we speak right now. thanks very much. christiane amanpour reporting. we will have much morton crisis in the ukraine. first let's get to some other stories making news. back to cnn worldwide headquarters in atlanta. >> reporter: more heavy snow and ice making life miserable for people across the eastern. indra petersons is following the for us. >> the temperatures continue to drop. the wind continues to pick up. the heavy snow headed this way. we'll give you a full update coming up in just a bit. 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[ laughs ] [ dance music playing ] so visit progressive.com today. i call this one "the robox." good morning. i'm wolf blitzer in washington. we're watching all the developments as they are unfolding in ukraine right now. correspondents are spread out throughout region. check out on the left side of the screen the latest information. first we want to check some other stories making news this morning. let's go back to the cnn worldwide headquarters. >> reporter: let's check those stop stories. president obama is set to meet the israeli prime minister at the white house this afternoon. the president said that time is running out to negotiate an israeli palestinian peace agreement. so he's calling on netanyahu to seize the moment. the two leaders are expected to discuss iran's nuclear program. in nuclear, freed an australian missionary, john short arrived in beijing. the 75-year-old was accused of secretly spreading his bible tracks around the buddhist temple. also today north korea fired two more short range missiles off its eastern coast. the second such launch in less than a week. hundreds of protesters were arrested outside of the white house sunday in a massive demonstration against the keystone oil pipeline. some of them actually acted out a human i'll sociopolitical lying on black tarps. others zip tied their hands to the white house fence. if approved the $5.3 billion pipeline would run from alberta, canada all the way to texas. are you fed up with that brutal weather in the u.s.? you're not alone. nearly 100 million people or about a third of all americans are waking up to deadly snow, ice and freezing temperatures. states of emergency have been issued in new jersey, delaware, mississippi and tennessee. public school systems from dallas to philly are closed today and for drivers it's pretty much a nightmare out there in illinois every major roadway in the state is iced over. if you're flying well you better get comfortable because more than 4,000 flights have already been cancelled or delayed. let's get to indra petersons, she's live in d.c. where the federal government is actually closed down today. >> reporter: does it took like it's march? once again it feels this winter wonderland out towards d.c. it's hard to believe. if you look at the snow on the ground this just came in the last few hours. when i woke up it was still raining then freezing rain and that quickly switched over to ice. it's hard to tell where the road is in comparison to the mall. the worst part about this is underneath these several inches of snow is a thick coating of ice because, again, we had rain this morning and the temperatures this morning were warmer than the afternoon. the temperatures are cooling off each hour but now we're talking about single digits with wind chill, feels like 6 degrees out here and every once in a while a gust comes up and makes things miserable. as far as what we're expecting, keep in mind this is the same system that was over l.a. right before the oscars. a big storm. had an ef-0 tornado outside of sacramento. this storm has impacted everybody from the west to midwest and now bull's eye is on the mid-atlantic. there's concern we'll still have heavy snow in new york. that system shifted farther to the south. right here in d.c. we're getting the biggest of the impact and west of us out towards virginia. as the day continues on we'll continue to see heavy bouts of snow even until 6:00, 7:00 p.m. still talk about snow in this area. something that's hard to believe considering just three years ago it was supposed to be the biggest storm we had two weeks ago. now another foot of snow is possible before all is said and done. behind all of this, of course comes another round of cold air. we're talking about air so cold that places as far south in texas are in 35 to 40 degrees below where they should be. all that cold air making its way in. any snow that does make to it the ground is expected to stay for the next several days. i really want spring. i did. the favorite part of your job, spring and summer. a beautiful fall. cherry blossoms. we'll keep talking. >> i'm thinking about it. >> still to come, oscar pistorius on trial for the murder of his girlfriend. a neighbor was the about blood curdling screams from the blade runner's home. that's next. 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[ male announcer ] and we do. it's how edward jones makes sense of investing. ♪ good morning. i'm wolf blitzer in washington. we're watching all the developments in ukraine right now with correspondents spread out throughout the region. we'll have live reports coming up in just a moment. throughout the day by the way all new developments coming out of ukraine will come up on the left side of your screen. first i want to check on some other stories making news this morning. let's go back to cnn worldwide headquarters in atlanta. >> first day of the murder trial of oscar pistons and now adjourned. it began with pretty chilling testimony those from his neighbor. the track star as you know, known as blade runner entered the court actually through a back door to avoid the massive media circus in fronts of the building. also in court, reeva steenkamp's mother, june. the first time she has faced her daughter's killer in court. pistorius pleaded not guilty to the four charges against him, one charge of premeditated murder and a firearms charge associated with his girlfriend's killing. plus two separate gun indictments from previous incidents. the olympic sprinter has never denied killing his girlfriend saying that he mistook her for a burglar. a neighbor was first to take the stand today, recounting the blood curdling screams that she heard just before dawn on valentine's day of last year. >> she screamed terribly and she yelled for help. also i heard a man screaming for help and three times he yelled for help. >> let's get to cnn forensic expert lauri peters. forensically speaking what do you find so interesting about this case thus far? >> well, forensically, they are going to go through the forensic evidence. right now they are busy with the witness stages. what's interesting today is the distances the witnesses were away from oscar pistorius house and how much they could hear in the circumstances they were experiencing. >> let me also ask you about reeva steenkamp's mother june. it's the first time she came face to face with pistorius. what was that like? could you feel the tension in that courtroom? >> yes. i think you could, actually. of course she's going through a terrible time and psychologically she must be suffering greatly at this point, having to listen to this evidence about reeva screaming and how terrified and the blood curdling screams. it must be very, very difficult for her. it's interesting, she hasn't actually been confrontational with pistorius. she's sitting quietly and he's doing pretty much the same. >> a lot of talk about whether pistorius can get a fair trial? . what do you think? >> yes, i think pistorius will get a very, very fair trial. you know, with the media and everything people say it will influence the trial. i don't believe it will. in south africa we don't have a jury system, a legal officer is appointed to a high court who has a lot of experience, she will not be swayed either way. the media's attention on the witnesses or on him may be uncomfortable but it shouldn't sway the material evidence, shouldn't sway what they say at all. they are all there for a reason. they know something or they saw something. all they have to do is tell truth and there should be absolutely no problem for any of the witnesses stood. >> we'll be following this murder trial closely. thanks so much. let's turn it back over to wolf blitzer in washington with the latest on the crisis in the ukraine. >> that crisis clearly escalating. we're moments away. we're ready for the opening bell. take a look at this. investors bracing for the worst possible day today at least right now going down right away the dow futures, we're looking grimly as ukraine crisis sends shockwaves through the global market. this morning european and asia markets took a dive. u.s. markets are expected to open lower. they are right now. why is this crisis in ukraine, this crisis with russia having such a huge impact potentially on the global market? i'm joined by christine romans. what's the short answer? >> reporter: the short answer is because tensions between russia and europe and russia and the united states very dangerous for global sentiment. that's the bottom line here. wolf, when you look at the region, when you look at ukraine it's a powerful pipeline for natural gas and energy from russia to europe. when you look at the region you can see that half of russian exports are to the european union. this is all-important. those are the major pipelines we're looking tlat. in terms of stocks you're not seeing the big dramatic impact at the opening bell that we thought. at worse you had dow futures down 160 points now down about 100. here's the conventional wisdom. russian stock market got slammed. the russian currency slammed. russian businessmen outraged, very concerned about what's going to happen to their economy. now you hear people saying that maybe, just maybe those russian markets are going to be a very powerful diplomat and temper some of the saber rattling we've been seeing, that big reaction in russian markets means perhaps the worst is behind us because why in the world would anybody try to do anything to make markets continue to be unstable there. that's the thinking right now. dow is down about 100 points. >> only two minutes in and more than 100 points. let's bring in our global economic analyst. what's your take. why this quick collapse right now at least steep downturn on world markets and on the dow jones. >> equity stocks are very vulnerable to political turmoil. people get very worried about any kind of political turmoil and that tends to affect stocks more sharply than bonds or gold or other safe-haven assets. christina is absolutely right. what's happening right now is worries over petrol politics, russia has the opportunity to really squeeze not the ukraine and the eu which gets a lot of its natural gas either >> g-8, the worlds's great economic powers they are supposed to get together to talk about world economic issues and ukraine are feeding europe and exporting those goods. small economy 45 million people but it really matters in this sort of patch work is that a global economy. every one of these ripples is dangerous. there's a russian businessman who tweet this, money doesn't love war. they want know you can export, import. they want to know skrirns stable. >> if the u.s. and eu impose economic sanctions against russia, forget about ukraine against russia that would have a negative impact on gobble economy. >> absolutely. these are major trade flows that we're talking about and the eu and u.s. are in trade negotiations right now. u.s. and russia were having problems over syria saying with russia and the eu. as christine says the ukraine seems small sean a small as an economy but the nexus of major political stories. >> those russian trapd representatives were supposed to have u.s.-russian trade talks this week. they cancelled those talks christine at least for now. >> another reason why the markets may be a powerful diplomat here. how much more can the stock market fall. the ruble down hard. the russian central bank raised interest rates surprise move raised interest rates to contain damage to the russian economy. russian business members very concerned about this. so you have trade diplomacy. you have diplomacy ahead of the g-8 and this market sending these messages as well. one thing, wolf, how powerful a negotiator wilmer mr. be. germany and russia have very close ties, very close economic ties. who is going to be player who turns this around or at least stops, at least stops the progression of uncertainty that we're seeing right now. >> i'll wrap it up. very quickly do you see potentially a little bit of a split developing between president obama's tough stance against russia and the german chancellor angela merkel? might she take less tough stance and could there be a bit of a rift? >> it's will be interesting to see. germany and russia have very close trade ties but, you know, the last last time russia tried to strong arm european merkel and other european leaders took a hard line. i think it will be a toss up really to see what happens and i think that merkel will take the lead going forward. germany is the strongest economic power in europe. they are dependent on russia and she will be in the hot seat. >> i suspect she has more influence with putin than president obama does but we'll see what happens on that front. thanks to you both. still to come a closer look at the u.s. military openings. are there any military options as russian troops move in, appear to be digging in for a long term occupation of ukraine. f before opening a restaurant specializing in fish and game from the great northwest. he'll start investing early, he'll find some good people to help guide him, and he'll set money aside from his first day of work to his last, which isn't rocket science. it's just common sense. from td ameritrade. 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is there a realistic u.s.-nato strategy. let's go the pentecost and our correspondent barbara starr is standing by. what are you hearing, barbara? >> reporter: officials are telling us across the board no u.s. military, no nato military action in this crisis. that is not to say, however, that nato and the pentagon are not involved in this. first up, u.s. officials say the navy will stick to its plan to send a war ship on a regularly scheduled rotation into the black sea in the coming days. that was planned, long planned, they are not going to pull back from that. they say part of regular u.s. navy business. what they are focused on is figuring out what you were talking about. what is the russian military up to. they are looking at the movement of russian troops. armored vehicles. helicopters. looking at the speed and direction in which they are moving and trying to come to some assessments for the president about what this may say about russian military intentions, very difficult because the russians can move very quickly, they can move in real-time and leave the u.s. struggling to catch up to figure out what they are up to. theering, wolf, we're beginning to hear, there's a lot of concern about russian deception and disinformation. the stories appearing that russia is doing all of this to protect its citizens. russian people living in crimea that there may be a need for massive russian humanitarian relief. the concern the u.s. has, they have no evidence that any of this motivation is actually true. they don't believe that it's happening, we're told, and as the russians continue to put out what the u.s. believes is deception, this complicates the situation, it makes it a potential hair trigger for some further kind of violence for all of this erupting into outright conflict. it is a major concern right now, trying to figure out what vladimir putin, the classic soviet style cold warrior may be up to next, wolf. >> barbara starr at the pentagon. thanks very much. still to come, tensions escalating by the minute as this crisis in ukraine plays out on the world stage. up next we'll take a closer look at why the crisis began when a political stalemate could mean for the u.s. and the rest of the world. oh the weekend we'll have at the shore. with waffles and laughs for our family of four. the pool is there waiting, don't you dare fret. there's no need to ask, "are we there yet?" be a weekender at hotels like hampton and embassy suites book now at hiltonweekends.com a couldn't about the size of texas but the global implications of a political stalemate in the ukraine are enormous. so what caused the country's political and economic crisis? cnn chief national security correspondent jim sciutto explains. >> reporter: there's a lot of questions about russia's interest in the ukraine as well as the west. first a reminder here. ukraine is in europe not a million miles away, the capital few municipal-bond miles away that americans travel to all the time, paris, london, rome. western border key u.s. aslice, slovakia, hungary and romania, poland. ukraine not a member of nato but there's been talk about bringing them in. let's get a better sense of russia's interest there. you look at crimea. on the tip of that peninsula, the sevastopol military headquarters. access to the black sea, mediterranean, atlantic, essential for russia and first place that many of those 6,000 and even more russian troops went when they crossed the border from russia into crimea. sovereign ukrainian territory. let's look inside the country as well because there's a split. western part of the country here liens towards europe, 5% of the population in these parts speak ethnic russian. eastern part 75% here speak russian, ethnic feel the pull towards russia. this part of the country feels russia this part of the country feels the pull towards the west. jim sciutto. >> we'll take a quick break. much more news after this. every day, people fall. from a simple misstep, to tripping over a rug, to just losing their balance. and not being able to get up from a fall can have serious, lifetime consequences. being prepared is important. philips lifeline with autoalert is more than just a medical alert button. it's an advanced fall detection system designed to get you help quickly. if you fall and you're unable to push your button, the fall detection technology within autoalert can trigger the button to automatically place a call for help. our us-based staff will make sure you get the help you need right away. this is philips lifeline. we received a fall-detected signal. do you need help? 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you're sitting there and they say the oscar goes to -- >> it's agony. nothing but agony. one way or another you have to do something very scary, yeah. it's awful. i wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy. >> were you prepared to hear your name. you lost your breath for a second. did they just say lupita nyong'o? >> yes. no matter how many times people predicted i would win it doesn't prepare you. >> knew what? it was a good 48 hours. the day before the oscars was her birthday. >> she was beautiful with that head piece she had on. >> classy, classy. nischel nischelle turner, great to see you. next hour of cnn room just ahead. good morning. thanks for joining me. i'm jake tapper in washington, d.c. welcome to a special edition of ""newsroom."" we begin this hour with russian troops an soviet style aggression. moscow launching its greatest challenge to the west since the end of the cold war. washington says vladimir putin, a cold war kgv agent has mobilized some 6,000 of his forces. many have swept across the border and into crimea and seemingly seized control. chilling standoffs now unfold. ukrainian troops refusing to surrender to the invading forces that stand arm and ready just a few feet away. so far, the stalemates have been peaceful but tensions growing by the hour both at the bases and in the world capitals. washington is dispatching john kerry for emergency talks. the mush yarussians are alreadyg him to pipe down. the latest from matthews chance in the capital, kiev. matthew? >> reporter: thanks very much. absolutely astonishing developments over the course of the past several days. slowly but surely and without a real shot being fired, the russian military is essentially taken over that area of ukraine in the southeast of the country and has established basically what's called operational control over it. it has cut off the area by road access from the rest of the country. it's troops and prorussian militaries have surrounded key installations, airports and military buildings. military have also been surrounded by military personnel and pro russian military militia. they have established control over the entirety of that area. the big question now is, what happens next? does it stay where it is? or does russia turn its attention to other areas of eastern ukraine where there are russian-speaking majorities and where the kremlin may also have territorial ambitions. a lot tension on the ground in ukraine at the moment. >> matthew chance, we'll check in with you for a few minutes. for president obama, the escalating scale mate could become the greatest of his presidency. he has dispatched john kerry for kiev in ukraine for emergency talks. cnn's newest white house correspondent, michelle kosinski, joins us now. >> reporter: there has been plenty of tough talk from senior administration officials over the weekend blasting russian president, vladimir putin's decision process. saying he badly miscalculated and as a result, if this continues, will be severely isolated internationally. some action, secretary of state, john kerry, will travel to ukraine and pledge u.s. sport and politically and financially to the new government there. >> reporter: the secretary of state is preparing for an emergency trip to the center of the crisis. the dangerous escalating situation in ukraine. >> the president spoke by phone with leaders of canada, france, poland, and the u.k. obama flatly rejected putin's reasons for entering ukraine and taking over crimea, telling him to back out and offering ways forward through dialogue or international monitors to make sure the russian people there are protected under ukraine's new government. john kerry didn't hold back. it is a stunning, willful choice by president putin to invade another country. >> a 19th century act in the 21st century. >> reporter: comes after ukraine's president was ousted in the wake of bloody street protests over his rejection of a deal with the european union, closer ties to the west and closer to european union. ten others are planned to sanction russia. now, the administration has chance ld trade talks with russia and several allies. leading to the gh summit in june. >> it now appears that possibly germany has found that off ramp to the current russian course that everybody has been looking for. after a call with putin, germany announced he had accepted a proposal to form a contact group, a fact-finding mission and a dialogue regarding ukraine. we haven't seen how that will work. it is being reported in a later call she describes speaking to putin as saying that he was out of touch with reality and in another world. jake? michelle, thank you. >> the stocks tumbled more than 100 points. let's bring in christine romans in new york. christine? >> jake, the last six or eight hours have been so dramatic in world markets. now, you have the u.s. market following suit. the dow down triple digits. six hours ago, dow futures were down closer to 200 points. they backed off some of that worse fear. you can see it is tough there. an exchange-traded fund, it trades here. the russian company, down about 7% right now. you are seeing global markets really moving. asian markets and european markets got hit. you had russia's main stock market index fall 13%. the ruble, it is not very often i am talking about the russian currency. the rubble at an all-time low against the u.s. dollar and the you're yo. the russian central bank in a very surprise move raised interest rates to protect its com economy. the markets in russia, very displeased with where this is going. jake? >> christine romans, thank you. what kind of domino effect could this crisis in ukraine have on the rest of the worl? what does it mean for global leaders? let's bring in nicholas burns, a professor at the har vovard keny school of government. ambassador burns, thanks for joining us. how concerned are you when you hear that angela merkel, the chancellor of germany described this in conversation with president obama as in another world, in touch with another reality? what kind of red flags does that raise? >> she is a very cautious, conservative person. she is describing him like that. it is ominous. he is, i think, filled with huberous and arrogance. he saw an opening air why in crimea and took it. he is taking all of crimea. he is not going to give it back. the big question is, will he stop there and can he be isolated and coerced by a combination of president obama and the european leadership acting through a diplomatic strategy to convince him not to go any further and completely divide ukraine into two pieces. >> you have called this the most difficult foreign policy request of the obama administration. how is it different when russia took part of georgia in 2008? >> that happened under president bush's watch in august, 2008. president obama when he came into office, quite sensibly, tried to reset with russia. he had some success initially. president putin, he is the person that said that the greatest calamity of the 20th century was the fall of the soviet union. he saw a threat and ukraine even thinking about a trade in investment relationship with the european union. he tends to see global politics in a 0 fashion. he wants ukraine beside russia and not integrated with europe. you have seen he is willing to fight for it. president obama's dilemma is that there is no military option available to the united states. not in a nuclear age. it would not be wise. it would be catastrophic. president obama is left with pressure, economic sanctions and diplomatic initiatives to rally the world against president putin. it will be a very long road to roll back what president putin has already accomplished. >> one of the things that needs to be done in addition to president obama and european leaders using their influence diplomatically and economically is he needs to be provided with some sort of off ramp, some sort of face-saving way that he can get out of this crisis. do you think what the u.s. has proposed which is letting individuals from nato or the organization for security and cooperation in europe or the u.n. monitor the situation in ukraine to make sure that those of russian descent are under no threat? is that enough of an off ramp. >> i don't think it is enough of an off ramp or exit door. it was a clever initiative by president obama. he raised it in that long 90-minute phone conversation on saturday with president putin. if russia is concerned about the fate of ethnic russians in ukraine, then russia has a recourse. the united nations or the organization of security and cooperation in europe. they are built for this kind of thing. if american and european monitors could be in eastern and southern ukraine and the crimea to rereassure the russian government, that's one way to solve the problem. putin has elected for this force and disinterested in president obama's initiative. i think that chancellor merkel's influence to form a working group is obviously not a bad thing to do but very unlikely to dissuade president putin from giving up the turf, the territory he occupies in crimea. >> germany playing the role of a good cop, as it were? nicholas burns, thank you so much. much more on the escalating crisis. kyra phillips is in atlanta following other top stories, including this massive winter storm. >> it rose across the eastern u.s. pretty much a nightmare. if you are flying, you probably should get comfortable. more than 5,000 flights have already been canceled or delayed. all the details right after this. ♪ [ male announcer ] you're watching one of the biggest financial services companies in the country at work. hey. thanks for coming over. hey. 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[ male announcer ] once it's earned, usaa auto insurance is often handed down from generation to generation. because it offers a superior level of protection. and because usaa's commitment to serve current and former military members and their families is without equal. begin your legacy. get an auto insurance quote. usaa. we know what it means to serve. and a hotel is the perfect place to talk to you about hotels. all-you-can-eat is a hotel policy that allows you to eat all that you can. the hotel gym is short for gymnasium. the hotel pool is usually filled with water. and the best dot com for booking hotels, is hotels.com. it's on the internet, but you probably knew that. or maybe not, i don't really know you. bellman: welcome back, captain obvious. captain obvious: yes i am. all those words are spelled correctly. we are the thinkers. the job jugglers. the up all-nighters. and the ones who turn ideas into action. we've made our passions our life's work. we strive for the moments where we can say, "i did it!" ♪ we are entrepreneurs who started it all... with a signature. legalzoom has helped start over 1 million businesses, turning dreamers into business owners. and we're here to help start yours. welcome back to the special edition of "cnn newsroom." i'm jake tapper. russia and china are known allies. what are the chinese saying? jim sciutto is live in new york. what can you tell us? >> reporter: there was a phone call between the russian foreign minister and the chinese foreign minister. the russian receipt yoadout was they were on the same page. the chinese rideout of the call was a little more nuanced. they said we had a constructive conversation and we favor a diplomatic solution. it would be interesting to know what went on in that call. one thing is for sure. we have had this international condemnation of russia's actions in ukraine. you have not had condemnation coming from china. china playing it very much on the fence. this is key for a number of issues. china and russia both have vetoes at the u.n. security council. both have used vetoes to oppose actions by other countries perceived to be interference in the domestic affairs of countries where as right now it appears we see russia doing exactly that. the other thing is that china, as you know, jake, we've talked about this before, they have their own territorial land grab in the view of some going on in asia right now over these disputed islands, the senkakus, the battle between japan and china, another one in which the u.s. is very much involved in. >> jim, thank you so much. the situation in crimea could get more complicated as russia considers the possibility of annexing into russia. >> what we are hearing is that a group of parliamentarians are working on a piece of legislation that would define the process, streamline the process for when a territory outside russia wants to be annexed, volunteers to be annexed by the russian federation. it talks about a scenario where a nation is collapsing and international law is unable to solve the problem and referendum is held and a majority supports the move. it is just drafted today and at the committee prosser sis. it is too soon to say how much support it has within the parliament or from the kremlin itself. it must ultimately go to the president for his signature. it shows at the very least there are some members within the political establishment of this country that are pushing for that evaentuality. it is desired to be put into effect to kick in if there is a call from crimea and a desire from the kremlin to drag this territory to within the russian federation. let's turn it over to kyra phillips with some of the day's other top stories. >> thanks, jake. president obama set to meet the israeli prime minister at the white house this afternoon. the president says time is running out to negotiate an israeli/palestinian peace agreement. he is calling on benjamin netanyahu to discuss it. hundreds of protesters were arrested outside the white house in a mass demonstration against the keystone pipeline. some of them even acted out a human oil spill lying on black tarps. others just zip-tied their house to the white house fence. if approved, the $5.3 billion pipeline would run from alberta, canada, to alberta, texas. are you fed up with all this brult bru brutal weather in the u.s. about a third of all americans are facing deadly snow, and ice. check out this picture from nasa showing how large the storm is. states of emergency in new jersey, delaware, mississippi, and tennessee. public school systems are closed today. as for drivers, pretty much a nightmare out there. in illinois, every major roadway in that state is iced over. if you are flying, get comfortable. more than 4,000 flights have already been canceled or delayed. alexandra field, live from philadelphia with the latest. >> reporter: if you are fed up with winter weather and you live in philadelphia, you have good reason to be. the city saw another couple of inches of snowfall overnight. that pushes the city's total to more than five feet of snow. relatively speaking, when it comes to this storm, this city was spared compared to city's further south like washington, d.c. the city was preparing for about a half a foot of snow. it looks like we got a lot less. about 2 inches at this point. the decision was made to shut down the schools in this city. that's mostly because of concerns about the conditions out here on the roads. when the storm came in last night, it started with rain. there was concerns about icing out here on the roads. the other big issue today now that the snow has stopped is really the temperature, which is definitely dropping. philadelphia could see near record lows tonight. certainly, winter really coming to the people in philadelphia a little wallop here, kyra. >> we are going to keep track of t the blade runner is back in court. the trial for the murder of his girlfriend begins. we have the latest for you next. ♪ [ woman ] i will embrace change... everything life throws my way. except for frown lines. those i'm throwing back. 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[ bottle ] ensure®. nutrition in charge™. welcome back to the special edition of cnn's "newsroom." i'm jake tapper. we are watching this tense situation in the ukraine with correspondents spread out throughout the region. the russian military has essentially taken over crimea, a strategic peninsula in southern ukraine. without a single shot being fired, not yet, anyway. president obama sending john kerry to ukraine for emergency talks. more on the crisis in a moment. first, some other top stories. kyra phillips joins us from atlanta. the first day of the oscar pistorius murder trial has wrapped up after some pretty chilling testimony. the blade runners attorney tried to cast doubt. she said she heard blood curdling screams coming from his homes. he pleaded not guilty, one charge of premedicated murder of his girlfriend and then firearms charge associated with her killing. plus, two separate gun indictments from previous incidents. pistorius' defense team said that last year's shooting was an accident. >> the fatal gunshot wounds to reeva, this occurrence was indeed an accident and i mistakenly believed that an intrude are or intruders had entered my home and posed an imminent threat to reeva and me. >> nick, what's the latest? >> reporter: kyra, if you wanted to get a sense of how this is all going to play out over the next few weeks, this afternoon would have told you everything. pistorius' defense lawyer, barry rue ripping into the witness there, michelle burger, questioning her time and again, how many shots, how did you hear them? what did you hear the screaming? what did your husband hear? your husband heard something different? he accused her of, you are adapting, you are speculating, you are closing the gap, all but telling her she is getting wrong, trying to inject an element of doubt in her testimony. she started off as a nervous witness. she started off speaking her native african. she finished the afternoon speaking in english standing up to that severe cross-examination and that's what the prosecution needs, witnesses with confidence where there can be no doubt in what they are saying. the defense attorney clearly trying to introduce some doubt into what that witness was saying there. >> we'll keep following the murder trial along with you there. thank you so much. still to come, investors on wall street bracing for the worst. why the political crisis is causing economic turn moil around the world. it's a stationery and gifts store. anything we purchase for the paper cottage goes on our ink card. so you can manage your business expenses and access them online instantly with the game changing app from ink. we didn't get into business to spend time managing receipts, that's why we have ink. we like being in business because we like being creative, we like interacting with people. so you have time to focus on the things you love. ink from chase. so you can. 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[ laughs ] [ dance music playing ] so visit progressive.com today. i call this one "the robox." olet's say you pay your tguy around 2 percent to manage your money. that's not much, you think except it's 2 percent every year. does that make a difference? search "cost of financial advisors" ouch! over time it really adds up. then go to e*trade and find out how much our advice costs. spoiler alert. it's low. really? yes, really. e*trade offers investment advice and guidance from dedicated professional financial consultants. it's guidance on your terms not ours that's how our system works. e*trade. less for us, more for you. thcar loan didn't start here. it started with that overdue bill he never got. checking his experian credit report and score allowed him to identify and better address the issue. then drive off into the sunset. experian. i'm jake tapper. welcome back to this special edition of "newsroom." washington says some 6,000 russian troops have mobilized across crimea surrounding ukrainian military bases there and seizing control of the entire peninsula. russia's biggest definance of te west since the end of the cold war. in washington, d.c., the condemnation has been swift and scathing it is an incredible act of aggression, a stunning willful choice by president putin to invade another country. it is a 19th century act in the 21st century. >> stop going on television and trying to threaten thugs and dictators. it is not your strong suit. every time the president goes on national television and threatens putin or anyone like putin, everybody's eyes roll, including mine. we have a weak and indecisive president. that invites aggression. president obama needs to do something. >> the crisis in ukraine is forcing stocks around the world to plummet. the dow is down about 160 points. let's bring in christine romans. christine. >> it started overnight. you had huge selloffs in asia and european stocks. the main russian stock market fell 13%. that is a huge, painful move for anybody who is an investor in russia or a business person. let me show you the other markets. all of the selling overnight has spread froo the u.s. market. you have oil prices, gas prices have spiked higher, about 2% higher here. that's a big move. grain prices are higher. corn prices up 2%. wheat up something like 5%. there you go. gold prices, a global safe haven. gold is up 2.3%. you can see markets around the world are moving. really closely watching those energy markets. as you know, jake, ukraine is a big pipeline for russian energy to european markets. these are some of those major pipelines through ukraine. there are a lot of other small ones. these are the main big pipelines. 70% of russia's exports are energy and a big destination of that energy is europe, through ukraine thichlts a small country relatively speaking, 45 million people in the ukraine. the economy is less than 200 billion. it already had an economic crisis. now, a political criescy. it sits between europe and the united states and russia. all of that uncertainty really rolling markets. a 13% decline in the russian market is a very big move. the ruble at a record low against the u.s. and the u.s. dollar and the euro. the country had to raise interest rates unexpectedly to protect itself. it just shows you what a shock all of this has been to the russian economy as well. that cob a powerful silent diplomate at the table as we go forward. >> christine romans, thank you so much. let's get the latest from crimea. diana magna is there. diana? >> reporter: well, jake, if this is an invasion, it certainly on the ground feels like a very low-key invasion. we know that 10 ukrainian military and naval bases are now surrounding by troops, russian troops, even though they are not wearing any kind of insignia. our own ben wedeman was up at a border post surrounded by russian troops. one of them told him he had come thed orders to leave their base on saturday and that the locals had welcomed them with open arms, bringing them food and offering them a place to sleep and stay. they were there to defend their ukrainian brothers. we've been wondering around the town which is the capital. it has been very calm. you see these soldiers circling government buildings, patrolling the streets here and there. that said, i now quote, interfax, the russian news ablecy that says that russia has given an order to ukrainian bases here to surrender by 3:00 a.m. gmt. that's 5:00 local time here tomorrow morning or they storm. two quite conflicting messages. that said, i don't know how much you can trust russia. they are pushing one very strong message to the pro-russian contingency here. it is certainly not the message that the government from kiev is putting out. jake? >> diana magnay with some news. thank you so much. the former prime minister of cry crimea. she met for her first international tv interview since her release. what did she have to say? >> well, jake, she further added a lot of uncertainty into what's going on. you just heard what diana is saying, conflicting reports from the russians and ukrainians. according to press reports and what was told to me, the russian parliament is delivering a bill that would call for the annexation. she is begging to step in and stop the connection of ukraine. she said the time is absolutely running out. >>. >> translator: in hard times, ukraine is left on its own and given to russia. when russia is allowed to take away crimea, the world will change and not only politics and life in ukraine but politics and life will change practically everywhere in the world. then, we have to accept to state that in 21st century, one country, an aggressor, can violate all the international agreements, take away territories, whenever she likes. we can't afford this in the world. that's why if the instruments of diplomacy won't work, if all the instruments won't work and personal relations with mr. putin won't work, the world has to strongest means. >> ms. timshenko, it sounds like you are calling for the united states and great britain and europe to use military force against russia? is that what you are calling for? >> i am asking all the world, every world leader to use all the possibilities in order to avoid ukraine losing crimea. >> what's also very worried to not only the ukrainians but also to the world leaders who are now engaged in heavy diplomacy is the possibility that russia extends what is. it is now defacto control of crimea. everybody is trying to work overtime to make sure russia doesn't do that and that also ukrainian authorities and the people there don't somehow miscalculate or give any kind of further pretext for russia to expand its military intervention, jake. >> christiathanks. protesters hitting the streets and demanding action in response to russian troops and the crimean peninsula coming up. mine was earned in korea in 1953. afghanistan, in 2009. orbiting the moon in 1971. [ male announcer ] once it's earned, usaa auto insurance is often handed down from generation to generation. because it offers a superior level of protection. and because usaa's commitment to serve current and former military members and their families is without equal. begin your legacy. get an auto insurance quote. usaa. we know what it means to serve. and a hotel is the perfect place to talk to you about hotels. all-you-can-eat is a hotel policy that allows you to eat all that you can. the hotel gym is short for gymnasium. the hotel pool is usually filled with water. and the best dot com for booking hotels, is hotels.com. it's on the internet, but you probably knew that. or maybe not, i don't really know you. bellman: welcome back, captain obvious. captain obvious: yes i am. all those words are spelled correctly. to nbcuniversal's coveragens of the biggest loser olympic winter games ever, with the most coverage of the most events on every device. and the most hours of streaming video on the nbc sports live extra app, including the x1 platform from xfinity. comcast was honored to bring every minute of every medal of nbcuniversal's coverage to every screen. so what's next? rio 2016. welcome to what's next. comcast nbcuniversal. protesters in the united states from san francisco to washington, d.c. gathered calling for action in response to russian actions in the ukraine. some urging the u.s. to intervene. others want a peaceful before lives are lost. >> we want him to get out before the war starts. >> it starts in crimea. we should stop it there and stop it only piecefully. >> ted rowlands is live in chicago where the largest ukrainian community in the united states resides. what kind of reactions are you seeing this morning? you might imagine we are in the ukrainian village neighborhood of chicago. people are very worried. they are watching very closely what is going on. they are worried for family and friends that are there. it is interesting. you ask them what do they want to take place? they don't know. they don't want military action that'sly. they are worried, heartbroken. take a listen to how extraordinary emotional some people reacted when we asked them about their feelings of what's going on in their own country. >> i'm sorry. well, like i said, i think you crain going to survive. united states behind them. hopefully. >> it is not just upset. it is scared. it is scared and horrible. just unbelievable that it looks like a new hitler in europe. >> i think it is very sad. other country, very peaceful country. the people always welcome in the guests. everybody who like to come to their country with open heart. today, they see what's going on in ukraine, it is ai big tragedy for ukrainians. it has broke my heart. 24 hours i can watch on internet what's going on in ukraine. >> a lot of people not getting a lot of sleep here, jake, because they are monitoring the situation there 24/7 online. you heard it. a lot of people having their hearts broken. a lot of worry here for their friends and family in the ukraine. >> ted rowlands, thank you so much. we will, of course, be watching the tense situation in ukraine. ambassador, nicholas burns, says, russian president, vladimir putin, saw an opening and he took it. will he stop at crimea? let's go back to the cnn center. a blockbuster night for hollywood's biggest actors. up next, the winners and losers from last night's star-studded academy awards. oh, yeah, we will talk about the dresses too. well, i'll tell you what. the eastern u.s. is getting pummeled again. this monster storm pushing its way from the midwest leaving a trail of ice and sleet and snow. for drivers, pretty much a travel nightmare. that's where our brian todd joins us on i-95 south near beltsville, maryland. give us a description of what you are seeing. >> reporter: kyra, very dngerous along i-95 between baltimore and washington, d.c. you can see me in this vehicle. we'll show you a shot out our front windshield here. there were near whiteout conditions a short time ago. very low visibility. the snow has let up a little bit. as you can see, the conditions are still very treacherous. a little bit of ice that built up before the snow came over. the snow is not over yet. there is still more coming through. we've had a state trooper complain to us that drivers are not heeding warnings to stay off the road. we have seen spinouts along the road and other treacherous conditions. i just talked to a tow truck operator who was hauling a pickup truck out of a ditch. he complained a lot of these cars are coming way too close to disabled vehicles on the side of the road. he has almost got hit a couple of times himself. those are the conditions we are dealing with here. part of the problem earlier today and it may happen later. the snow was coming too fast for the salt truck, the snow truck and the plows to operate. they couldn't get the roads cleared fast enough. here is some of our interview with james williams a short time ago. >> it is dangerous right now. the situation where i have to pick this truck up from the rear and turn my truck facing the direction of the traffic, which makes it very hard. people come and they can barely see. they are coming awfully close. all i ask is that everybody slow down. >> we're going to show you just what we're dealing with here along i-95. i'm going to get out of the vehicle. we can switch our cameras over to our photojournalist, oliver. a lot of the times you can't tell where the shoulder starts and where the road ends. a lot of volume along this road. the state troopers complaining about vehicles going too fast. i have to key an eye on this traffic while oliver is shooting here. some of these vehicles coming fairly close and we've seen a lot of spin outs, kyra. very dangerous along i-95 between baltimore and washington, right now. >> it is pretty phenomenal what we can bring to our viewers with technology. you are driving in a car. we're seeing it live. you are able to step out and go right to another camera. this is your territory. this is where you live. can you kind of put it in perspectives for folks what it is going to be like today for the next couple of days and flights are delayed and travel is not easy right now. this is really impacting major parts of the country. it really is. it is impacting this region to a great degree and all along the eastern seaboard. what it does to people around here is it really snarls traffic in a horrible way. people here are not used to this kind of volume of snow. the icy conditions are very treacherous right now. what they have warned people, from yesterday to today, don't be deceived by something like this where you see kind of a black patch of highway. there is sleet and freezing rain underneath it. ice that's built up and what we're told now is that the temperatures are going to start to drop. all of this is going to be freezing over. you can see right behind me, a lot of motorists aren't heeding the warnings to slow down or stay off the road. we are noticing more vehicles on the highway. >> i would feel better if you got back in the car. we will take it live from inside the vehicle. brian todd out of maryland there. a lot of glitz and glamour at the academy awards. there were star-studded acceptance speeches that were phenomenal. the stunning red carpet looks. the oscars proved to be a pretty awesome party in hollywood. joining us now to talk about last night's winners, losers, dish on everything, film producer for the hollywood reporter, tatiana segal and robert verde. let's start with "12 years a slave" that got best picture. let's take a listen to lupita nuong'o. >> thank you so much for putting me in this position. it has been the joy of my life. when i look down at this golden statue, may it remind me and every little child that no matter where you are from, your dreams are valid. >> that entire speech, the way she put her words together, beautiful. were you surprised this film did so well last night? >> not at all. i think that this was the film that came in as the favorite. even though "gravity" was kind of in the mix. it was "12 years a slave" to lose. i think lupita was also pretty much the one that people thought was going to win. jennifer lawrence was -- she won last year. she was sort of the biggest threat to lupita but lupita gave a performance that was hard to overlook by the academy. >> she exudes grace and beauty. speaking of beauty, robert, let's talk about red carpet glam. i know you want to talk about who wore it best. >> liupita, there is a shesrber colors. that was a custom prada dress. lupita is a watershed moment in beauty also, not just in fashion. she loves fashion. she looks amazing in it. she has a real girl's body, a little curve to her. she is not one of the familiar, very skinny, unrealistic modeled we have seen on the runways. but she also is a natural beauty. for women of color who have looked up to all of the amazing women like beyonce, who in many ways are fabricated with bigs and weaves and have a lot of makeup on, lupita is a breath of fresh air. she is natural. there is something really intoxicating when a young girl is not covered with all of the tools that fabricate false beauty. >> point well made. oh, yes. simple and so elegant. >> and dramatic and glamorous. >> amen. >> we have to talk about the selfie seen around the world. ellen was a trip. this photo has become the most shared photo on twitter ever. it has already been retweeted i'm told, more than 2 million times now. what do you think? does this go down as the best selfie ever? i want you both to weigh in. >> gentlemyes. >> the best part was another photo taken from the opposite side. you can see all the people that didn't make it in and one of those people is liza minelli trying to push her way to the front of the image. >> it's true. tatiana, everyone wanted to be a part of that selfie. >> that's a great.. the photo from behind was sort of the more telling photo. everyone in that natural moment of trying to jossle their way in. i think it was a really cute moment. i don't think it was entirely spontaneous. i think it was scripted but it came off as one of the more spontaneous moments of the night. >> like that one kid on the team that says, hey, coach, put me in, put me in. they were back there just trying to jump in on that photo. guys, thanks so much. tatiana segal, robert verde, fun talking with you. >> thank you you. >> thanks so much for joining me today. i'm kyra phillips. at this hour with john ber manned and michaela pereira starts right after a quick break. 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arctic air will bring more rounds of snow and ice. driving in some parts already proving treacherous. on interstate 65 in indiana saturday, a 13-vehicle accident, including nine semi-trucks ended in this fiery blaze. on a snowy interstate in iowa, this fedex trk ja-- truck jackknifed, leaving a 40-car pileup, backing up traffic for hours. while it may be cold, take solace that plummeting temperatures are not expected to be as severe as earlier this month. >> right now minneapolis seeing temperatures by the afternoon averages only about 6 below, chicago will be below freezing as well. on the east coast not too bad, expecting temperatures above normal. notice your morning low, a lot of single digits already out there, morning lows about 12, if not 9 degrees in boston. 30 below in minneapolis. notice a different. there's about 65 low. there's a drastic difference here. by tuesday or so you'll notice temperatures well below normal, even having spread all the way to the northeast and down to the southeast. while it's going to be very cold, it not going to be that polar vortex air we had a few weeks ago. >> it will feel like what it's going to feel like. >> semantics. >> and news surrounding new jersey governor chris christie, his administration is fighting back, denying allegations they threatened to withhold superstorm sandy recovery money. good morning, erin. >> reporter: kate, good morning to you. christie said at a big political dinner party for 500 guests thrown for him last night in florida that he hasn't enjoyed the last 11 days, as no sane person would, and as to questions about whether he'll seek his party's nomination in 2016, he said "come see me next year," for now he's focused on doing what's right for new jersey. he's expected to come out swinging today against allegations of bullying. >> the fact that she came, the lieutenant governor came me asaid and said you got to move forward with the rockefeller project. this project is really important to the governor. she said she had been with him on friday night and this was a direct message from the governor. >> on sunday, zimmer met with federal prosecutors for several hours, turning over a journal that she says details the alleged ultimatum and other documents at the request of the u.s. attorney's office. christie's spokesman calls her accusation categorically false saying the allegations are false. the bridge lane closure investigation is going full throttle. christie spent the weekend fund raising in florida for fellow gop governor rick scott and talking to prospective donors to a christie for president campaign. when asked when the so-called bridgegate scandal will end, christie responded "i don't know" and questions continue to mount about whether the governor misused funds for sandy relief on television while using his family. rudy giuliani is calling it all -- >> a political witch hunt. >> reporter: with all the allegations of cronyism, his swearing in ceremony will be less festive. >> all right, erin. it seems like this has gotten beyond the point of mere criticism. let's treat it more like what it appears to be a political prosecution or persecution, depending on your perspective. congressman, thank you for joining us. do you believe a federal investigation is warranted by what we know so far? and why? >> well, i mean, if this is a whole issue of abuse of power and what i call a culture of corruption, i mean, many of these, in many cases, including the one that i brought to the public's attention, it's really an administration that's threatening people, bullying people and this is what we're hearing so i don't think there's any question that the u.s. attorney and various legislative committees need to look into this. there are too many allegations now. we don't know all the facts but the facts keep coming out every day and they're not good. >> but when you pick through them, just for the point of debate here, okay, because this is getting serious. it's taking a lot of your time and taking a lot of my time so it deserves the parsing because it's become too convenient for those in politics and those in the media to pick sides here. when it comes to bridgegate do, we have any information yet that connects what happens there to governor christie directly in any way? >> well, these are all the people that work for him, you know, top people in his administration. you know, they're not saying that he's directly involved but now with this latest development in hoboken, the mayor is saying that this was basically a threat that came from the governor himself. so i think it's a pretty serious charge that needs to be looked into. >> right. here's what i want to ask you about that. let's not be naive, congressman, you're much more savvy than i but neither of us are surprised to hear that any kind of executive said to a lesser executive do this and you'll get something else, if you don't, you may not. that's not unusual leverage in politics so let's unpack what happened -- >> well, i don't agree with you, chris. >> go ahead. >> i don't agree with you. i think it is unusual. remember, we're talking about money that's coming from the federal government for relief after a major superstorm. and to say that you're not going to get that unless you do a development project, i don't think that's business as usual. i think we have to hope it isn't and make sure it doesn't continue. >> i think that's a fair point of criticism that this is the kind of thing you want to stomp out. i'm going to how unique it is and let's unpack her situation. she had only gotten $300,000 and said see wanted $100 million but she wound up getting $70 million and got a special development that only four places in new jersey got. doesn't that mitigate her original charge? >> no, i don't think so. i brought up the whole issue with the tv ad campaign. once again what we're hearing with this case is that there were two bidders. rather than take the low bid exte -- bidder, they took the high bidder because they offered to put his family in the ads. it was $2 million more. a lot of people haven't even gotten money to help them rebuild. so all these things are pretty serious in my opinion and it's this sort of -- go ahead. >> january 11th, nine days ago, mayor zimmer said something different. she said i don't think that this was a quid professional quo, i don't think i was being strong armed and then she changed. it's unusual someone has such an easy shot at a political opponent and doesn't take it. what do you make it have? >> chris, you have to understand there are too many charges like this now. we've known as elected official for years that the christie administration, you know, does bullying, does threats. i hear it all the where he talked about everything from sports to, yes, marijuana. president obama getting real in the pages of "the new yorker" about his battles in the white house and opening up on a personal level telling editor david remnick in an interview if he had a son, he wouldn't let him play football because of concussions. and on marijuana, he called it a vice but didn't think it was more dangerous than alcohol. and he talked about his on use of marijuana. >> i never understood that line, the point was to inhale. >> reporter: five years ago today, obama was sworn in, vowing change no matter the obstacle. >> with hope and virtue, let us brave the icy currents and endure what storms may come. >> reporter: and the storms did come. and now a more realistic obama, describing himself as swimming upstream. obama likens himself to a relay swimmer in a river fulp rapids. he says at the end of the day we're part of a long running story. we just try to get our paragraph right as he talks about reducing income inequality. it's a goal he's recently made a hallmark of his second term. we want to restore the upward mobility at the heart of america. >> reporter: obama also revealed he will write a memoir about his time in the oval office and that the first lady has already begun working on hers. >> and on the issue of edward snowden, he said he doesn't have an answer on clemency. he said people were put at risk. >> when we come back, a big fight is brewing over the postal service and its latest of the to make some money. workers are angry that staples may become your new post office. >> and it could be the perfectnding perfectn ending to peyton manning's career. >> it's the horses versus the hawks. ♪ we are the champions of the world ♪ it's out there somewhere spreading the good word about idaho potatoes and raising money for meals on wheels. but we'd really like our truck back, so if you see it, let us know, would you? thanks. what? over the pizza place on chestnut street the modest first floor bedroom in tallinn, estonia and the southbound bus barreling down i-95. ♪ this magic moment it is the story of where every great idea begins. and of those who believed they had the power to do more. dell is honored to be part of some of the world's great stories. that began much the same way ours did. in a little dorm room -- 2713. ♪ this magic moment ♪ that's my end goal, that's my end destination. for me, even a quick weekend trip to kind of reset makes me a better athlete. [ male announcer ] be a weekender like ashley wagner at hotels like hilton and hampton. book now at hiltonweekends.com. let's go around the world now starting in ukraine. demonstrations continuing in the capital city of kiev where thousands are rallying against new laws. >> reporter: there were clashes in the streets of kiev after thousands gathered to protest new laws. the new legislation severely restricts people's ability to demonstrate in the ukraine. the u.s. secretary of state john kerry has been very critical of the enough legislation, saying it was rammed through parliament without transparency or accountability. following sunday as clashes, the government has agreed to negotiate with the pro-eu demonstrators. >> in japan, a dolphin hunt continues today despite international outrage against it and calls for many of it to stop. paula hancocks has the details from tokyo. >> reporter: more than 200 bottle nosed dolphins are set to be captured. they say it is a culture. the ambassador said she is deeply concerned about the ♪ wait a minute mr. postman >> welcome back to "new day." amazon.com getting a lot of attention today. check thought new promise. it knows just what you're about to order. it's calling it anticipatory shipping. the internet giant has a patent on getting you your stuff before you actually click buy. here to explain what it means is chief business correspondent christine romans. anticipatory shopping. explain what they mean by this. >> it means they know what you're going to buy before you buy it figuring they ship it to you before you ordered it. so the idea here is to really cut down on the shipping times to ship it before you even know. now, this is the wall street journal found a patent they had applied for. >> so this isn't a done deal? >> no. it could be they think somebody else might do this so they're getting the patent for it or they're developing a system are where they can look at your data. >> maybe they ship it to the hub first and they've seen your history, they know you buy coffees diapers and sheets this time of year. so they ship it to be close to you so . you have the christie administration using their authority to try and get something. >> the christie defense. new details on how the new jersey governor plans to take on allegations of corruption as the latest mayor to accuse him goes to the feds. how valid are her claims? >> it's back. another round of vicious cold set to freeze out the midwest and northeast this week. how low will temperatures go? we're tracking it all. >> co"cool running" part two? can the jamaican bobsled team make it to the games? they qualified but what they need to make it to sochi. >> your "new day" starts right now. >> good morning. welcome to "new day", it's 7:00 in the east on this martin luther king, jr. day. new this morning, the most direct challenge to governor chris christie's administration yet, this time from a fellow jersey politician. hoboken mayor dawn zimmer said chris christie ordered the withholding of sandy recovery funds. this morning the mayor is expected to speak out and chris frates is here with the late peps. >> reporter: a source telling me lieutenant governor that kim kim guadagno is expected to categorically deny these allegations. dawn zimmer said funds would be withheld unless she backed the redevelopment plan that chris christie supported. kim guadagno says zimmer is the one who pressed for sandy funding during their conversation. according to the source, the lieutenant government said she told the mayor, quote, you can't tie those two things together, those being sandy funding and reredevelopment for hoboken. >> so the lieutenant governor is saying, yeah, we talked about the sandy funds in this plan but it wasn't me, it was the mayor who was tying them together, pushing if there were any quid pro quo, not the lieutenant governor pushing it. is that right? >> that's right, chris. my source is telling me she doesn't specifically recall discussing this project that had been brought up by the rockefeller group. and another interesting point here, chris, kim guadagno isn't supposed to have anything to do with sandy recovery efforts. inside the governor's office, she's always been kept separate from sandy funding because she's been personally affected. my sources tell me she can't talk about sandy. the lieutenant governor remember this as a friendly conversation and says that after this conversation, she twice visited hoboken and zimmer never brought up any concerns she had about this conversation or told the lieutenant governor that she had been upset by it. >> boy, this is going to get deeper and deeper into the weeds and makes the mayor's contemporaneous writings even more interesting. thanks for digging down deep on this. >> reporter: thank you. >> and we're seeing and hearing from kenneth bae. he's speaking out and admitting guilt. what more are we learning from mr. bae? >> well, kate, this was an unexpected press conference today. we understand from associated press saying that kenneth bae called it at his own request. that has to be taken at face value. he is a prisoner in north korea. prisoners have said they've done this sort of thing under duress. he's wearing a gray prison jacket. he said he wanted the u.s. government to do more it secure his release and he said he has in fact committed a crime in north korea, that the authorities there, the regime says he carried out hostile acts against the government. now, this could allude according to associated press from a comment from the u.s. vice president joe biden who said last month that he was many held for no reason, that he did and i ask the u.s. government to do more. very interesting press conference we're seeing here. he also went on to saturday north kreeian government does not abuse human rights. they having this press conference. clearly some of it under duress. >> thank you very much for the last details in a russian city torn apart by terror. the the olympic behind the attack are causing real concerns about security at the olympic games with a new video warning of more atax during the games. with just two and a half weeks to go, officials in russia say they have security under control but not. >> is convinced. let's bring in fran townsend, cnn's security analyst. a lot to cover. security around olympic games is always a concern, any large, public event with so many people coming together is always a concern but here it seems to be a higher concern than usual. first on that video, what do you make of what we learned, two men claiming responsibility for those 2010 bombings and threatening more attacks to come? >> reporter: well, kate, it's a pretty bold move, right? you've got their faces are clearly seen, they're taking responsibility for the two volgograd bombings and throat threatening more. presumably russian authorities are trying to track down and identify these individuals and take them into custody. pretty brazen, right, two and a half weeks before the games again. but russian officials ought to be unnerved by this, as i believe are athletes around the world gathering at sochi now. these terrorists have demonstrated the capability by virtue of those volgograd bombings and there's no reason to think they're not serious and don't have the materials and people to execute those bombings. >> vladimir putin says they have control, there will be a show of force and everyone is going to be -- >> when we worked in prior olympics with host countries, the the olympic village where the athletes are staying is the most protected, along with those of the dignitaries. but once you move out from the olympic village, it becomes more and more permissive an environment. especially transportation modes, the public lobbies of hotels, public sites and tourist sites. things that are open and very difficult to screen for people. that's where you're most vulnerable. >> the cooperation between the governments seem to be a point of concern at this time. mike rogers, he used the type of wording like it there's been a cooperation of -- >> look, i can remember when we were preparing for the olympics in athens. the intelligence sharing was extraordinary. there was a real degree of transparency between american and greek officials so we could identify threats before they showed themselves. that's not going to be the case. we remember recently they threw out an alleged cia spy from russia. we've thrown out from the united states alleged russian spies. so there's a really contentious relationship. it not surprising the -- remember, athletes have traend for years to get to this moment and now they're going to worry about not just their own security but the security of their families who don't enjoy the sort of level of protection that the athletes enjoy. >> with that you will of this in mind, i find it important that u.s. officials are sending over fewer american security experts than in any other olympics in recent memory. >> it is surprising but that's a function of the bilateral relationship. the russian security services are very capable. i think they believe they don't need it and don't want the help. there's not a lot of trust that there won't be independent homing going back one city. we'll be talking much more about this in the coming days. fran, thanks so much. chris? >> here we go again, another blast of dangerous cold. much of the nation is about to be in a deep freeze because arctic air will send temperatures plummeting across the northeast and then it will dive done to the south and spread into the northeast day by day. so where are we today? let's take a look at the upper midwest. chicago already seeing temperatures below freezing for your high today. that's 4 degrees below average. not too bad, right? minneapolis in at about 21. on the east coast, still seeing above normal temperatures. enjoy it. that is going to be changing quickly. by tomorrow morning you'll have the temperatures with the wind chill at 30 below. i want to put it in perspective, still about 30 rounds than the last arctic square. new york city a wind chill of 16. this chill is out there. look at the highs by tuesday afternoon. temperatures still stay in those 20s. dc also only looking at another side to this. the latest weather model brought in the second quip are notice the taps in all this moisture right off the ocean. look at the advisory as the low puts all of that snow right along the coastlines. if you're newark or d.c., heads up, anywhere from 4 to 8 inches, d. krvlgts look being for a good 5 to 8 inches. do you guy like me still? >> they do. the polar vortex a big headline. >> and nearly 2 million pounds of craft shelf stable eyeems including -- so far no reports of anyone getting sick. >> the nuclear deal between iran and major world powers going into effect today. u.n. nuke kwlaer inspectors are disconnecting the centrifuge program. strong split reaction from the international community. the syrian opposition says it will withdraw until the invite is revoked. >> new zealand experienced a 6.2 earthquake. power is out for thousands. we're told train service has been suspended. so far fortunately no reports of casualties. >> and the shake did shake loose a an eagle statue. >> and this man was able to get his dog back on to the ice but then he fell in about 75 feet from shore. he is now being treated for hypotermia the denver broncos beating the new england patriots 26-16 to take the afr titles the seahawks' top rated defense helped carry them over the rye alf and fran. and thing about game will be played on neb 2. where are you be? what kind of cheese dip are you making? are. >> >> are we going to -- is there an alternative to this? >> where are we going to do it? i have the most room but i have the kids there. >> that's okay, i'm a great aunt. >> you'll be picking them out of your hair for like two hours. >> got to love it. we'll take a break. up next, the christie crisis deechens. another mayor comes forward, this time accusing the governor of withholding sandy aid. >> and the president like you've never heard him before. plus, the surprising items he carries in his personal bag. we know you want to know. we'll tell you. [ male announcer ] she won't remember this, being carried in your arms... "new day," brought to you by princess cruises. playing pirates with you in secret coves, an afternoon swimming with dolphins, finished with a movie watched against the setting sun... she won't exactly be short on memories. princess cruises, come back new. ♪ [ male announcer ] we all deserve a good night's sleep. thankfully, there's zzzquil. it's not for colds, it's not for pain, it's just for sleep. ♪ because sleep is a beautiful thing™. ♪ zzzquil. the non-habit forming sleep aid from the makers of nyquil®. that's my end goal, that's my end destination. for me, even a quick weekend trip to kind of reset makes me a better athlete. [ male announcer ] be a weekender like ashley wagner at hotels like hilton and hampton. book now at hiltonweekends.com. let me ask you a question, pierce. how long is your drive to work? >> i don't know, maybe 15 minutes. >> oh, well, that's a nice commute. it would be a real shame if something were to happen to it. >> governor, are you threatening me? >> i don't know. am i? >> "saturday night live" poking fun, i'm sure you don't need me to tell you, the new jersey governor chris christie. this morning chris christie's team is fighting back against more allegations of political strong arming. first there was bridgegate. now hoboken mayor zimmer is saying chris christie threatened to withhold sandy aid. anna, first to you. you were in florida. what do you make about the allegations of chris christie and his team? it was a pretty fiery pushback. >> he did several fund-raising events and he did a confab with republican donors that was not a fund-raising event. i'm in the same place i was with the old events. i don't know what's there. we still don't know what the "there" in there is. there's a lot of allegations flying around now. frankly, it's getting a little hard to keep track of who's where and what's what and who's saying what. it some republicans it's beginning to look like a pile on. the bottom line is we don't know yet, they are still developing. they are pushing back very hard. they're saying that the mayor's numbers are not true. she has gotten considerable funding and this is just a trumped up political story. i'm seeing them go on the offense on this one and be a lot harder in pushing back than they were on bridgegate where they admitted bad faith under their watch. >> very often in politics, you wear your problems on your face. what did you see about the governor? >> reporter: a big difference between saturday and sunday. on saturday he was worn down, tired, exhausted. and then the chris christie yesterday in palm beach was dramatically different. it's like he was a boxer on the ropes and shakes it off and keeps on fighting. he was calm, collected, human yesterday. he had a good event with potential donors and was well received by them. >> what do you make of what anna and other republicans are saying? there's a chance that this is piling on, this is another mayor with an ax to grind who wants to get her face on tv. >> i think he's worn his outward aggressiveness on his sleeve, it's been his calling card. now when you have people coming out and saying i was bullied by the governor, people believe it. people say if you do this for me, i'll do this for you. it's been going on for generations so i don't know what's different about that. people see him as a bull in a china shop. now if you're going to start seeing drips and drips and drips of different jersey officials saying i was pressured, i felt bullied, it's going to be a problem for him. a lot of national republicans are taking glee in his misfortune right now and i think that's unfortunate for him and the debate. >> the florida governor supposedly pulled back a little bit, wasn't as visible with christie right now. congressman pallone is saying he should step down. you have one cable network dedicated to little bit bringing down chris christie. >> i want a national figure on the republican side that's a normal person and chris christie was one of those normal people. i didn't think chris christie was a bad republican. when things like this, it needs to be investigated and if what he said at his press conference is true, if he had nothing to do with bridgegate, it's going to pass over. but if you're going to see all 65 mayors of new jersey say i've had problems with chris christie, he bullied me, he's going to have a hard time moving forward. >> do you think you'd have a hard time finding any local mayor of any state saying they've been strong armed about something? >> they always feel they're being pressured above them. every elected official thinks they should be president of the united states. every mayor of new jersey probably thinks they should be governor of new jersey. every congressman in new jersey thinks they should be governor or senator in new jersey. of course they're going to try to find a way to raise their stature and make a run for it. >> if that is part of the reality, friends get rewarded, people who don't work with you, they don't get so much rewarded but republicans nationally seem to think this seems to raise to a different level. >> i'm not sure that's accurate yet. i think everybody is in a wait-and-see mode. i think chris christie took lead on that this weekend. i heard him on saturday and on sunday say 2016 is on pause. about 2016 he said yesterday to these very big potential donors, "come see me next year." it's a year where on the political front i'm going to focus on helping governors get elected. he said the same thing on saturday. so he himself is pushing the pause button on 2016. i don't see this national glee from republicans. yeah, there have been a couple here and there. >> i -- >> let me tell you about what i saw this weekend. i saw long-time republican donors who flock to hear chris christie. the verdict is still out. but nobody's running from him like he was toxic waste. >> the difference between the people you were with in florida, are those in the governing caucus members of the republican party. unfortunately the republican primary in 2016 is not going to be decided by those people, it's going to be decided by people on the far right who don't like christie at all. he committed the biggest sin, he hugged president obama. that's going to haunt him. when he really needs help from national republicans, a lot of them are going to run from him because they feel he's too close to the president. >> who you're picking as a example is rand paul, they've had a long running feud going -- >> lindsay graham of south carolina. >> and money matters, too. ask romney. the rabl he was able to withstand months and months of primary is because he had the money and structure to withstand it. they're realizing right now what they the press wants to talk about is not graham's achievements in floridas, they want to talk -- >> rick scott's achievements in florida. i'm trying to think of one, i can't. >> ironically, anna, that's why chris christie got out of new jersey, because he's wants to expose himself to other political climates. >> what do you mean, chris? it's 70 degrees and sunny here. >> the reason this could hurt him in 2016 is because if he doesn't run a clean shop, it's going to be hard to be an executive at the next level. >> and we'll continue to see, christopher. great to see you. anna, great to see youses always. >> coming up next on "new day," marijuana and the president. he's talking about his own drug use in the far, far pot. what do his comments mean for legalizing the drugs nationwide? >> and let's not forget. on this holiday, we want to honor him. "we need it today as much as ever." we'll be right back. ♪ can you tell me ♪ it's out there somewhere spreading the good word about idaho potatoes and raising money for meals on wheels. but we'd really like our truck back, so if you see it, let us know, would you? thanks. what? well commonwealcome back to" an ominous new terror threat. a video has surfaced with two men believed to be the people who killed 34 people last night in volgograd. they pledge more attacks making specific threats against the olympics and tourists who come from the game. >> and a man is in suicide watch after shooting his wife in the chest. the motive is also unclear but deputies say this man, william dresser, is cooperating. >> fire crews are getting a handle on the wildfires in the hills east of los angeles. it is almost under containment. five homes have been destroyed, 15 others were damaged. it's believe the flame was sparked when campers used papers to feed a camp fire. they are now in jail and facing charges. >> and we're hearing long lost audio recordings from martin luther king, jr. he's heard discussing steps then senator john f. kennedy took to get his release in. >> it is true senator kennedy did take specific steps. he was in contact with officials in georgia during my arrest. he called my wife, made a personal call and expressed he was working and trying to do something to make my release possible. >> that sound is from a tape found in a tennessee attic a few years ago. >> extended hours today at the national zoo in the washington area for the huge crowds that are packing in to see bao bao the panda cub. bao bao, whose name means precious in mandarin, was born in august. don't worry, if you can't get there in person, you can always tune in to the panda cam, chris, on the national zoo's web site, knowing you're a big fan of baby pandas. >> it's very, very popular. >> bao bao. >> check it out. >> i find you both very bao bao, by the way. >> i'm going to take that as a compliment. thank you. time for our political gut check. president obama opens up on a new in-depth profile by "the new yorker's" editor in chief. they covered everybody from football to marijuana to candid reflections on the office of president. here to break it down is cnn's chief washington correspondent john king. good morning. >> reporter: happy monday. >> quite a read. a different perspective coming from the president as he's in his second term. what did you find most revealing? >> reporter: i think at times the president is debating himself in this article. this is not a one cup of coffee article, it's a full pot of coffee article. but david remnick is a wonderful writer, he's spent a lot of time studying the president. it's a very thoughtful article. the president seems to be debating himself at times, saying he still thinks he can still get some things done, though it's still a tough climate in washington. he describes himself and the presidency as you're a relay swimmer in a relay race. you get your one paragraph of what you're trying to write. at times he's that aspirational president who won in 2008 and at times he seems to have more modest aspiration. >> we hear the pot is not any worse than alcohol. that will get some buzz. but i really was taken -- first of all, he's talking to the media and he knows the media is not his friend. but he seems beat down. maybe that's just about interpretation. but where do you hear he is in terms of his enthusiasm for keeping the good fight up? >> again, you get in fits and starts. you'll talk to some who see the president and they'll say he's energized for this fight. he'll give a state of the union address just around the corner, he'll talk about raising the minimum wage. if he can do one thing, it's to fight for those who have been knocked down and can he get that done in his final two years of his presidecy. a beatdown, i think washington has taken some of the zeal out of him. if you go back and compare barack obama 2007 and 2008 running, saying he would make things different, he would change washington, it would be transformational, he was an aspirational candidate, he sounds at times in this article much more tactical, trying to get this or that done, not a broad view. >> he's talking about abraham lincoln in that one section saying lincoln's achievement acknowledges at the end of the day we're part of a long-running story, we just try to get our paragraph right. i find that striking between the barack obama we know from 2007 and 2008 to the barack obama we know now. >> is it a humble take in the presidency, he spend as lot of time with presidential historians or is it a realistic take after living in a tough climate. he says all those pictures are in the wall and you see them all the time. he says ronald reagan, franklin roosevelt, abraham lincoln, he said they're among the president who is made a big difference, they actually impacted and changed society and he wants to be one of them. he has a challenge over these last three years to see what he can get done in a very, very difficult environment. >> i wonder which of the statements he made in there will lead to the motion action. legalizing pot, that's not going to change on the federal level. he already said that. the stuff about football. the federal government really has no reason to weigh in there. what do you think will will wind up getting the most purchase. both of very interesting as a parent. he said if he had a son, he wouldn't let them play football. he said he compares those who do to smokers saying it's all out is there now, they've seen the chris being, if they want to do it, let them do it. he gives the green light. it wasn't that long ago his justice department was fighting the state effort to legalize or decriminalize marijuana. he makes a point he thinks it's young black and latino kids who get thrown in jail for smoking pot and more white kids don't and so he thinks it's an equalizer. >> and you know he knows exactly what he's doing -- >> >> reporter: he knows exactly what he's doing when he speaks about this. he's also not up for reelection. >> thanks for pointing that out. >> and coming up, we're learning target was not the only store that was hit. >> and cool runnings. find out what stands between the jamaican team and trying to compete at the sochi limb pibs. ♪ i can see all obstacles in my way ♪ hey kevin...still eating chalk for heartburn? 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"stubborn love" by the lumineers did you i did. email? so what did you think of the house? did you see the school ratings? oh, you're right. hey babe, i got to go. bye daddy! have a good day at school, ok? ...but what about when my parents visit? ok. i just love this one... and it's next to a park. i love it. i love it too. here's our new house... daddy! you're not just looking for a house. what he's doing when he speaks ♪ i can see all obstacles in my . all right. so, indra says another polar vortex is on the way. i think this is another arctic blast both unrelated and distinct in its properties. >> really? >> no, i kid. >> indra, drop some science. >> basics, guys. polar vortex, it is always there, it's circulation at the poles, it goes round and round and round. if it weakens, this lobe comes down and you get that very cold air. the difference this time is the lobe is going down but not all the way. the very cold air stays up here. arctic air, which is not as cold, is dipping down. that is key. everyone keeps saying it wrong. do you not have a polar vortex come to your region, the vortex is always there. you are going to freeze. you are not going to like this. minneapolis still talking about temperatures a good 30 below. they're still about 30 degrees warmer than the blast you saw last time. new york city seeing about 16 with the wind chill, last time about 14 below with the wind chill. regardless, by tomorrow that cold air spills all the way into the northeast. temperatures in most place as good 20 degrees below normal. even some heavy snow in the latest forecast. new york city and d.c., as much as 8 inches in new york city and a good 5 inches out toward d.c., guys. a lot going on. >> that's right. >> not a polar vortex. >> now we do. >> that was incredible science. we're going to talk about new developments in the hack attacks. remember the issue with target? upwards of 110 million customers may have had their information stolen. target may not have been the only store to have been targeted because the software behind the breach was undetectable. our next guest is the chairman and ceo of isight. he joins us this morning. talk to us about how the malware works. >> it's advanced and it has to achieve five objective. you have to establish yourself on the system. you have to hide yourself so you can see the information on the magnetic data before it's encrypted, you have to leave the environment and then you need to cover your tracks. i malware effectively allows all five of those attacks to take place. >> how were they able to get around the existing security? was the security that was there enough? >> the security in place today in most retailers is in complains with pci standard, which is the governmental regulations around how you can protect credit card data, which requires them to get the data encrypted, store it a certain way. all the bad guys know exactly what you're doing to try to protect against their efforts. so they craft strategies to specifically counter your defenses. in this case it looks like they've been pretty successful. >> so clearly our government standards aren't enough. can't they do more? if the bad guys are more sophisticated than the good guy, we've got to step it up. >> think of how long it takes the government to put out a standard and how long it takes to implement it and put all the controls in place. you're fighting a history channel when you're really looking for new releases. in this case the adversary will continuously adapt their strategy until they're successful. unless you can track and see how they're changing, see the new tools and techniques they're using and adapt as the adversary adapts, you're always going to be fighting yesterday's battles. >> absolutely. >> some reports reports point to a russian teen-ager as being the source of this malware. is that what is happening here, that a 17-year-old russian teen-ager is our worst fear? >> no, not at all. he's just a part of the equation. if this is the guy potentially, what he he's done is create the weapon and sell the weapon. it doesn't mean he's the guy who used it. he's obviously a good coder and he created a piece of software that can be distributed among mutt many criminal groups around the world. once they have the core set to use whatever systems they want. you now have this unbounded set of attackers. imitation is the greatest form of flattery. i think we'll see a lot of flattery in the coming months. >> do the companies who have been named in this government report, do they not have an obligation to tell their customers that their information may have been compromised? >> well, i think once they have the clear data they have been compromised they certainly have anable gags to report. we've seen victims reporting. the key issue here is how you can inform potential victims that they may have been compromised already and they just doesn't know it temperature keep in mind the five steps, the last one is hide your tracks. it's very hard to detect whether or not you've been compromised. the secret service work that they've done and we supported them with to put out a report to say here are the technical artifacts of the attack. that way potential victims can determine whether or not they've been attacked. this is all one phase. one thing for sure is the criminal gains will pale in comparison. they harvest the credit cards, they have the information, you industrial to monetize the cards and get the host back in the country. the flip side of that, on the victim side you clearly have to reissue all those cards that have been compromised at great cost, the brand damage, customer confidence damage has a real ripple effect. >> customer confidence is a very real issue for so many of these retailers. john waters, thanks for joining us. we appreciate your perspective. >> coming up on "new day," they made history before but they'll need some real help to make it to sochi this time around. what will keep the jamaican bobsled team from making it to the games? 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[prof. burke] talk to farmers and get smarter about your insurance. ♪ we are farmers bum - pa - dum, bum - bum - bum - bum♪ ♪ welcome back to "new day". it took 12 years but the jamaican bobsled team is back. two man team has qualified for sochi but they might not get a chance toe compete with 18 days left the team is racing to raise tens of thousands of dollars just to get to sochi. john berman is looking into this. >> you would think the biggest obstacle for a bobsled team from jamaica is that they are in the caribbean without snow. the big problem here is cold cash. >> for the first time in more than a decade the big just underdogs in bobsledding have defied the odds and qualified for the olympic games but the jamaican bobsled team isn't packing their bags just yet. the problem? they need a lot of money fast. >> that's why we're looking forward so we can fulfill the dream. >> the team needs to raise as much as $80,000 to cover travel and equipment fees so they turned to fundraising websites to make it happen. in just under 24 hours the team raised horse than $16,000 and donations continue to pour in. >> we're jamaican. it will happen. >> we're not bobsledding yet. >> oh, yes we are. >> the jamaicans are the most famous team in the sport due to the movie "cool runnings" that chronicled the journey of the country's first olympic bobsled team. after missing the last two winter olympics the bobsledders were determined to qualify for sochi. >> this is such a real, really great feeling. >> the team who refers to them as "cool running," the sequel know the odds are stacked against them. but they are hoping that with some help they will have another shot at olympic glory. >> it's not many people can say they are from a tropical country and do a sport which is winter sports and we're so good at it. >> i think they are going to make it. i certainly hope they are. you saw the captain there. he's a great story himself. he's 46, which is pretty old for the olympics and he's been retired from competition for ten years and he came back for one last push. >> i love it. that's so great. >> i don't know if it's the camera angler or what. you two have no excuses. >> i have ton of excuses. >> i watch a lot of tv. >> your sleep schedule. >> that will be fun to watch. we have hope. coming up on "new day," terrifying new threats, new hype surrounding the olympics we're talking about right now in sochi. we'll sort through it with someone who knows terrorism and once had to figure out how to secure a olympics. form are homeland security tom ridge. stay with us. hey guys! sorry we're late. did you run into traffic? no, just had to stop by the house to grab a few things. you stopped by the house? uh-huh. yea. alright, whenever you get your stuff, run upstairs, get cleaned up for dinner. you leave the house in good shape? yea. yea, of course. ♪ [ sportscaster talking on tv ] last-second field go-- yea, sure ya did. [ male announcer ] introducing at&t digital life. personalized home security and automation. get professionally monitored security for just $29.99 a month. with limited availability in select markets. ♪ and our giant idaho potato truck is still missing. so my dog and i we're going to go find it. it's out there somewhere spreading the good word about idaho potatoes and raising money for meals on wheels. but we'd really like our truck back, so if you see it, let us know, would you? thanks. what? i am very concerned about the security status of the olympics. >> new fears on attacks of the olympic games. we talk live to the man who helped keep the utah olympics secure after 9/11. are the games safe this time? under fire. another democratic mayor accusing chris christie of bullying. she's now talking to federal prosecutors. what her journal may reveal about what happened. and how christie's team is fighting back today. lighting up the debate. president obama weighing on pot saying it's nor dangerous than alcohol. your "new day" continues right now. good morning. welcome back to "new day" on martin luther king, jr. day. it's january, 20, 2014, it's 8:00 in the east. security threats mount ahead of the winter olympics. now 18 days to the sochi games a threat playing out before our eyes. in a new video released from the suicide bombers, in it they are in the video directly threatening tourists traveling to sochi for the games. the video came the same day that the olympic torch game through volgograd. we'll talk about the situation with tom ridge who helped keep the 2002 games in salt lake city safe. let's start with phil black with the very latest from russia. phil? >> reporter: it was in this transportation building behind me three weeks ago where a man walked up, walked up to the security screening area, blew himself up and killed 18 people. the next day someone else blew himself up near a bus and killed 16 people. two men are seen claiming responsibility for that attack but disturbingly they say those attacks are only a small taste of what to expect during the olympic games. mounting concerns in russia this morning as the olympic torch relay makes its way through the bomb stricken city of volgograd. two extremists in this video claiming responsibility for the two back-to-back suicide bombings last month that claimed 34 lives. and warning that more attacks could come during the sochi olympic games. in the hour long video the purported suicide bombers are seen constructing explosives and explaining their motives, all before heading to their targets, triggers in hand. the two men apparently part of an islamist militant group vowing to prepare a present for the olympics and all the tourists who come over. members of congress are very concerned. >> if something does happen, what is the evacuation plan and emergency response plan that would take place? >> others worried about americans heading to sochi. >> i would not go, and i don't think i would send my family. i am very concerned about the security status of the olympics. i do believe the russian government needs to be more cooperative with the united states when it comes to the security of the games. >> reporter: russian president, vladimir putin deploying a security force of 40,000 police officers and soldiers to the region. in an interview with abc news, putin says he'll do whatever it takes to keep athletes and visitors safe. and pledging that russia has adequate means of security. security around the olympic venue on high alert. metal detectors and bomb sniffing dogs visible as the dogs get under way in just over two weeks. despite the recent attacks, russian officials say they are not changing or all terrifying their security plan in sochi because they believe they have everything else in place but when we saw the olympic flame arrive here at the train station this morning, there were more members of the security forces than members of the public here to welcome it. there is clearly now greater concern, even if sochi is locked down that there are potentially other vulnerable targets in other parts of this country. back to you. >> maybe even more so because of the concentration of security around the olympics. there's a lot of concerns and questions. let's dig deeper with someone who has had to find out answers to these type of questions, tom ridge. he was the first secretary of homeland security. was governor of pennsylvania, of course, previous try to that. he's now ceo of ridge global a security and consulting management company. you know what it takes to secure olympics. when you look at the situation over there, basic question is russia up to the task? >> i certainly think they are up to the task. they've had several years to prepare. they've learned and it's customary for them and hosting countries to spend a great deal of time with the previous olympic countries to determine the protocols that they've used. make no mistake about it, the russians have had an ongoing and sustained problem with islamist fundamentalist in that region and you can't take it lightly. i don't take the video lightly. it's one of the longer ones that i think we've seen from a terrorist organization. with great specificity. but then i recall the days i was secretary of homeland security and we had to deal with that kind of video threat on a fairly regular basis. at the end of the day it comes down to what kind of intelligence they have and some congressmen explained their concerns about perhaps there's not enough information sharing with their american counterparts. >> does tom ridge go to the olympics? does tom ridge send his loved ones to these olympics? >> i would be inclined to go. i think if i enjoyed winter sports. having said that, i think that the fundamentalists, if they were to make a statement are more likely to make a statement outside of the village and the venues. russia is a vast country. they can express their hatred towards putin, defire for a separate islamic state by bringing terrorism and terrorist attacks in other parts of this vast country of russia and it will serve the same kind of message. >> when we get to the logistics of this, you have so many people coming there, they all won't be in that immediate secure area, they will be living in other out lying areas. how big is the risk? >> one of the challenges that you and i have right now is we don't know what we don't know and that's not a dodge on accountability. we're taking a look at the entire scenario. fortunately, i think the fbi sent over several dozen of its agents and hopefully they will get that on site view and be able to make a determination as to the relative safety and security. it's fairly impolitic to talk about this but when we provided security in the winter olympics in 2002 we did it within the constitution. russia can be far more aggressive from vied security for visitors, spectators and athletes. at the end of the day i still think it's very important for the fbi on site in collaboration with their intelligence community and our intelligence community to give some advice to our president. i remember that president bush on our daily meetings and we met daily to discuss terrorism and when we got closer and closer to the olympics that was the focal point of discussions. at some point in time i believe the president will have to make a statement with regard to the information our government has relative to the safety and security of sochi. >> you think it's an open question at this point whether or not the u.s. should participate or do you think it's safe, it's just about how we do it? >> i think it's about how we do it. we should be inclind to go. in the real world putin has a great deal to lose. he's hosting these olympics. his visibility in the international community has risen and though putin is at odds with the united states on just about everything he cannot afford a terrorist incident anywhere in the village or at the site. as i said before if there's an attack it's likely it's some place else. i would be leaning towards going but i would make a final decision once i got on ground reports from the fbi, our intelligence community and in consultation with our allies. at the end of the day it's about intelligence. >> because putin has a luster on him right now in some international circles makes him a more tempting target. did anything ever happen at utah that we didn't hear about? >> not that you need to worry about. at the end of the day, i guess, chris, at the end of the day americans would have been pleased and gratified by the extraordinary, extraordinary coordination and collaboration, multiple federal agencies, seat agencies and the local government and it was years and years in the planning under the leadership of governor romney. there were dozens of state agencies and local agencies involved down to the most infinite detail. the olympics went off very well and we can only hope the same thing occurs in russia. >> was there anything you had to stop? >> no. >> secretary tom ridge thank you very much for the perspective this morning. we'll check back with you again as we get closer to the olympics. >> good talking with you. >> always a pleasure. so we're looking at another blast of arctic air returning to a huge chunk of the country this week. it's not the cold snap of unprecedented proportion we shivered through a couple of weeks ago but sure is close. indra petersons is here with much more. >> just when we were hoping to stop bundling up like a snowman. still winter time, guys. we'll definitely be talking about another blast of this cold air diving down. today not so bad every where. we'll be talking about a lot of this cold arctic air diving down the south. notice this cold air. not justin south but in the northeast. today not as bad. notice on the east coast temperatures still a good 10 to 11 degrees above above normalal. below normal in the upper midwest. early hours tomorrow morning look at this difference. minneapolis you'll feel with wind chill 30 below. no. not the 65 below you saw at the beginning of the month. either way it doesn't matter. that's very cold air. single digits will be out towards pittsburgh, new york city looking for 16 degrees with that wind chill. put up a perspective last time new york was 14 below with wind chill. 30 degrees warmer than last time but either way tuesday this cold air is here to stay even through the afternoon look at the highs. expected to be below normal. good 20 degrees in many places below normal even down south they will be feeling this chill with temperatures in atlanta just into the 40s. wish i could stop there. that's not the only story. here comes the clipper. we'll be talking about that clipper pulling that moisture off the ocean and chance for heavy snow. if you're in d.c., new york city, might want to check out the latest forecast. it's a new one. four inches for new york city. d.c. three to six inches of snow. so, yes, snowman days. >> just enough to pull out the skis. >> go for it. let's take a look at our headlines. making news, breaking news out of north korea, we're hearing this morning from kenneth bae, the american missionary jailed in that country for more than a year now. he's appealing to the u.s. government for his release. bae was under guard during a press conference he held at his own request telling reporters he's a criminal but he could possibly be released if there's cooperation between the u.s. government and north korea. a massive food recall. 2 million pounds of velve everyone ta cheesy skillets singles. there's no reports of anyone getting sick. if you bought the product you can return it to your supermarket for a refund. in west virginia this morning some are saying they still will not use the water despite assurances from the government it's safe. after coal processing chemical spill. on saturday the last do not use order was lifted but some folks are doing their own testing say they may never consume tap water again. martin luther king, jr.'s daughter is urging people to observe today's holiday named after her father by making today a no shots fired day. dr. bernice king calling for church bells to ring in the name of nonviolence. services and tributes will be held across the nation today on what would have been his 85th birthday. this morning the hollywood award season certainly heating up sending oscar pool spinning. the critically acclaimed film 12 years as a save tied with "gravity" with the producers awards on sunday. "american hustle" took home the trophy for an outstanding performance by a cast at the saturday night s.a.g. awards. i still have many movies to see. "american hustle" among them. >> amazing. so many good films up for best picture this year. i have not seen any of them. >> you know there's so many great films. >> i've read the synopsis. "word on the street" is they are fabulous. you know what else the word on street. denver and seattle fans have a lot to celebrate. these teams were two of the best in the regular season. how will the number one offense in the league and arm of peyton manning stack up against nfl's "best defense". let's go to the man who knows. andy. >> reporter: this is the unstoppable force meets the movable object. peyton manning broncos record setting offense and seahawks top rated defense on the other. the seahawks defense is the best and richard sherman is the best. sherman made the game winning play in the closing seconds of the nfc championship against the 49ers and he wasn't very modest about it. he got in michael crabtree's face and went on an epic post-game rant. >> i'm the best one in the game. that's the result you're going to get. don't you ever talk about me! >> who was talk being about you? >> crabtree. don't you open your mouth about the best. >> reporter: all right. we'll have to see how sherman fares against peyton manning. he was great yesterday. peyton is trying to do something no other quarterback has ever done that's win a super bowl with two different teams, and a fun fact. peyton will be the oldest player in this year's super bowl at age 37 and second oldest quarterback to ever start a super bowl. anyone older is his boss. >> those are some fun facts. awesome fact. >> andy, quick insight how will peyton do or how has he done in the past when he's put on the ground because that's going to happen in this game. >> he's not very good when the game temperature is below freezing so we'll have to see how that pans out. the broncos when they had to run the ball this season have done well and we'll have to see if that's the case against the seahawks. the seahawks have that amazing secondary. we'll have to see how it goes. it will be the passing game of the broncos against the secondary of the seahawks. >> can't pass from your back. >> i guess that's a good point. okay, andy, thank you. >> the horses versus the hawks. that's what the game is becoming known as. coming up on "new day" the biggest trouble for governor chris christie yet. this time a fellow new jersey lawmaker says he pressured her. we'll sort out the accusations, see if they stand up to scrutiny. >> also this morning we're remembering martin luther king, jr. in his honor. a live look at the memorial in washington. we'll be right back. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ told ya you could do it. (dad vo) i want her to be safe. so, i taught her what i could and got her a subaru. (girl) piece of cake. ♪ (announcer) love. it's what makes a subaru, a subaru. of the dusty basement at 1406 35th street the old dining table at 25th and hoffman. ...and the little room above the strip mall off roble avenue. ♪ this magic moment it is the story of where every great idea begins. and of those who believed they had the power to do more. dell is honored to be part of some of the world's great stories. that began much the same way ours did. in a little dorm room -- 2713. ♪ this magic moment ♪ is your tv powered by coal? natural gas? nuclear? or renewables like solar... and wind? let's find out. this is where america's electricity comes from. a diversity of energy sources helps ensure the electricity we need is reliable. take the energy quiz. energy lives here. is. welcome back to "new day". we're following new accusations this morning against governor chris christie. another new jersey mayor claiming the christie administration claimed toe withhold superstorm sandy recovery money in order to push their own agenda. we have all the new developments from trenton, new jersey. good morning, erin. >> reporter: good morning, kate. don't forget all of this is going on as chris christie prepares for his second inauguration tomorrow but that gnawing erection is certain to be a lot less festive now. the embattled new jersey's governor second in command is expected to come out swinging today and allegations of bullying and intimidation. hoboken mayor has gone public with allegations that christie's lieutenant governor delivered what she called a threat on the governor's behalf. to withhold much need superstorm sandy relief funds for her flood damaged city if she did not support a development project. >> the fact is she came, lieutenant governor pulled me aside and said, essentially, you got to move forward with the rockefeller project. this project is really important to the governor. she said she had been with him on friday night and this was a direct message from the governor. >> reporter: on sunday, zimmer met with federal prosecutors for several hours, turning over a journal she says details the alleged ultimatum and other documents at the request of the u.s. attorney's office. christie's spokesman calls her characterization categorically false saying it's very clear partisan politics are at play here as democratic mayors with a political axe to grind come out of the wood work and try to get their faces on television. this new controversy comes on the heels of christie's famous bridge lane closure probe. it's going full throttle into his administration's involvement into the lane closures on the george washington bridge. christie spent the weekend fundraising in florida for rick scott. and talking to prospective donors to a christie for president campaign. when asked last night in a closed door event on the so-called bridgegate scandal will end, politico reports christie replied i don't know. and as if all this wasn't enough, questions continue to mount about whether the governor misused funds in sandy relief commercials featuring his family while running for re-election. the public relations nightmare for team christie has reached such a fever pitch that rudy giuliani is calling it all -- >> a partisan witch-hunt. >> reporter: there's a new "new york times" report that at that dinner last night with wealthy republican donor, many of those donors say he needs a new national team with experience around him. >> joining me is the man standing by the governor, a man who was former governor of mississippi, haley barber. the newest suggestion by a local mayor. does it give you more concern about the atmosphere of chris christie's culture? >> the news media is willing to leak any far fetched story with basis in fact unbelievable. this is a lady mayor who asked for $127 million of hazard mitigation money from the governor to give that to her from federal money, when the state was only receiving in its entirety $300 million. it is absurd to think that one town would get well more than a third of the total amount of money. this town that was being punished got over $70 million in hurricane relief. she has other projects pending. but she's already received over $70 million. more than $4 million of hazard mitigation block grant money and that's the particular program that she was asking money for. >> so hazard mitigation block grant money which unlike what your reporter said is not to repair damage from much needed damage is to prepare for the future. >> so let's say she asked for too much money. let's grant that. she says -- >> amen. >> she says 70 million she got wasn't state authorized, it was private insurance remember don't count it in terms of what she got and she says something more important than the numbers, governor. she says the lieutenant governor came to me and said if you want help you have to do what we want to you do somewhere else. she has journal entries of this conversation and how disappointing it was to her. do you find that compelling in terms of her being strong armed? >> it might be found compelling except she repeatedly and repeatedly sent out tweets praising governor christie. there's an article written by a hoboken writer who supported dawn zimmer for mayor on hoboken. who said on the tv show msnbc she repeatedly contradicted herself. here's what he said. look at the facts. tweet after tweet after teeth illustrating zimmer's approval of mr. christie's handling of sand die days, weeks and months after the storm. one gets praise and adoration from the hoboken mayor and it seems to be prompting a question few in the media asking. if zimmer had a problem with christie why continue to offer public praise and be a big proponent of the governor? there's a writer from hoboken who seems to me he has some good judgment. >> look, i think there are some things that's problematic just on january 11th she said she didn't think there's a connection. she said i don't think anybody would believe me. this praise came before the strong arm thing. i got written down here. now people are creating a safe harbor for these type of allegations i'll come forward with mine. is that so far fetched? >> i think it is more far fetched than what she actually said on msnbc. she said, quote, and i'm reading it because i don't want to misquote her. so what i'm hoping comes out of this by coming forward is to say, governor, please support this rebuild by design competition, come forward, fully support us. give it your very direct endorsement and understand, governor, that we have to make, when we're making our development decisions we have some real challenges. so what she said on msnbc is i'm doing this and hoping i can bluff him or rough him up so he changes his mind to support us. i don't think she's going to succeed in shaking christie down on this but that's not what haley says her purpose was, that's what dawn zimmer said on television. >> what do you think you would need to see for this to be more than hyper examination of culture and partisan attack by a cable company. >> you got this problem. a journal that's written can be written any time. you know, i'm a recovering lawyer but i do still remember that from when i practiced law. and why was she sending out all these tweets that have been preserved on the internet that said one thing that was totally different from what she was saying and then she comes back and says i'm hoping i'm putting enough pressure on him he'll fold and let me have my $127 million, which by the way $300 million of hazard mitigation grant money, most of that won't even go to local governments. it will go to individuals and businesses that have to elevate their homes and that sort of stuff. i've done this with hurricane katrina. you always have people who want more than there is. new jersey has received $14 billion of requests for hazard mitigation money when they are only getting 300 million. for her to think that this is going to shake that money loose, that was a surprising thing to read in her interview. >> governor barber, i appreciate the perspective. obviously this is going to be not just about outcome but tactics and this will continue for some time. appreciate you adding to the conversation. >> thank you, chris, for having me. >> kate? >> we'll take a break. coming up next on "new day" president obama admitted smoking marijuana when he was younger. now he's weighing in on the debate to legalize marijuana in a new interview. what he has to say and what impact it might have. also what do the newest bachelor and one direction william payne have in common? we'll tell you what they were talking about. welcome back to "new day". it's monday, january 20th. coming up, president obama gives a long, wide ranging interview in "the new yorker" talking everything from u.s., foreign policy. would you let your kid play football? he wouldn't. what's worse for you booze or weed? hear his answer. >> plus a very special good stuff today about a police officer doing the right thing, and it was all caught on camera. we'll have more of that. all right. now for the five things you need know. fresh concern about security at olympics. extremists threatening attacks during the games. >> kenneth bae speaking out to reporters, calling himself a criminal. he's pleading to the u.s. government to intervene. the massive security breach at target could be spreading. cyber crime experts say six other u.s. large retailers were hit by the same attack and there could be more. get ready for another arctic blast. the eastern half of the nation expected to see well below average temperatures starting tomorrow morning. and the two best teams in the nfl to punch their tickets to next month's super bowl the seattle seahawks go head-to-head against the denver broncos in new jersey on the 2nd day of february. go to "new day" cnn.com for the already latest. we're talking a lot about the cold because bad stuff coming this way. what about the west? there hot, dry conditions causing trouble as well. will there be any relief in natural regard? indra petersons is here to answer those questions. >> january, february, we should be seeing the west coast looking like this. they should see the dip in the jet stream and seeing rain. unfortunately it's been almost a year this huge ridge has been setting in place. it's producing the exact opposite of what they need, that fire danger. they are stuck in this pattern for as far as we can see. no good news for them. no good news for the east. the cold air is diving down. look at the wind chills we're expecting by tomorrow morning. 30 below for minneapolis by tomorrow morning even towards new york city, talking about just the teens. single digits out towards pittsburgh and even as we go through the afternoon the cold air is making its way in. highs are expected to be below normal. they stay that way through the middle of the week. even down to the southeast same problem temperatures will below normal. that's what we're talking about today until the latest weather model came out. this clipper making its way across picking up moisture and a lot of it. we're talking about heavy snow, d.c., philly, new york city look for anywhere between four and eight inches of snow. less by d.c., whopping five inches. no longer is it the cold and a lot of snow. >> i was looking at what you're pointing out. chicago has been getting the brunt of it. everything has been coming our way on the east coast. chicago has been getting it worse. i can't complain. >> so cold. >> four to eight inches for tomorrow? >> yes. >> get excited. thanks. >> coming up next on "new day" a revealing interview with president obama, what did he say about marijuana and alcohol? and could it mean a change in law? >> so there's a proposition. pc police making a false arrest or celebrities offending common sensibilities. we have the biggest stars saying stuff on social media that force ad lot of sorrys. judge for yourself. ♪ they lived. ♪ they lived. ♪ they lived. ♪ (dad) we lived... thanks to our subaru. ♪ (announcer) love. it's what makes a subaru, a subaru. welcome back. this morning president obama is getting quite a lot of attention for what he said about marijuana in an interview, that he said previously he smoked it. and sees it as just a bad habit and that's in his words no more dangerous than alcohol. colorado and washington state as you well know have legalized recreational pot use. what does the president stepping into this debate do about the debate about marijuana nationwide? joining us are our cnn commentators. ben ferguson and mark lamont. good morning to both of you. >> good morning. >> morning. >> no pot jokes. first let's go to what the president said, mark i'll have you weigh in. this is what really has this conversation going. he said in this interview with "new yorker" magazine, he says has has been well documented i smoked pot as a kid and i view it as a bad habit and vice not very different from the cigarette its smoked as a young person up through a big chunk of my adult life. i don't think it's more dangerous than alcohol. what was your first thought, mark, when you read this what the president said? >> i said duh? i thought everybody knew that. this is not a big deal. the president made a comment that many people know that most people understand as a collective understanding but awesome to hear a sitting president concede this point. to be clear he wasn't saying it's good just that it's no worse than alcohol. >> do you think it was an important step in the marijuana debate or do you think people are paying attention to it because there's a bit of a giggle factor when the president talks about weed. >> it's both. obviously we all giggle when we read it. some of us pumped our fist. at the same time it moves the conversation forward. when you're the sitting president you acknowledge you need to move it forward not just for health reasons bullet reasons. >> do you think the president is moving this conversation forward? >> he's certainly moving it forward but i don't think it's in a way he should be. the commander-in-chief is a guy you should look up to. when you're a little kid most kids want to be a policeman or fireman or president. if he says hey if you get busted smoking weed tell your parents it's the same thing as a cigarette. not that big of a deal. it's a terrible precedent for the president to basically say illegal activity is really not that big of a deal. it is a big deal. and as president of the united states of america he should make sure he let's kids know smoking spot a big deal and it's not the same as going and buying a pack of marlboro reds. >> i'm so glad you said that. that's exactly what he said. i tell my children you shouldn't do it. i tell my children bad idea don't try it. the president didn't say you should do an illegal attack. he said we should move towards legalization. >> he normalized it. he normalized the act of smoking weed. that's my big issue. he normalized it to make it seem it's the equivalent of getting caught with a beer or getting caught with a cigarette and there's a difference and the president of the united states of america should know there's a difference and that when you say this -- >> what's the difference? >> if i have a beer -- i'll explain it to you. if i have a beer i'm not drunk. if you smoke weed you are high. there's not not getting high from getting weed. there is a difference. now if you used alcohol that's totally different you can have a beer in society and not be drunk. you can't smoke weed and not get high. >> that's an argument for why the president said it's a bad idea, it's a vice we shouldn't engaging. from a health perspective it's not worse. from the criminal justice perspective it's far worse because a small portion of society is being punished more so than everyone else. those are the president's critiques. >> you bring up a good point that ben i want your reaction. when the president talked about his reasoning and where he is on the marijuana debate he said this in part. let's throw this up on the screen. he said middle class kids don't get locked up for smoking pot and poor kids do and african-american kids and latino kids are more like try to be poor and less likely to have the resources and the support to avoid unduly harsh penalties. >> i don't have a problem with the president coming out and saying we need to change the sentencing laws around marijuana and you shouldn't have an advantage when you're wealthy because of the resources you have to stay out of jail where another kid doesn't have those resources and he goes to jail. i don't have a problem with the president saying we need to look at sentencing laws. that's not what he said. he said, i've told my kids it's not a good habit. i've told my kids it's something you shouldn't do. it's basically no different than alcohol or cigarettes. that's the comparison that bothers me the most because the president has the weight of the world that -- the influence of the world all over the place and if i'm a young person and i hear what the president said, i'm going to think hey the president said it's not a big deal so i can smoke weed and it's not that big of a deal and that's not what the president of the united states of america should be implying. >> mark, i want to get your take. you know the president knows exactly what he's stepping into. he knows when he comments about this, he knew what he was doing. why do you think he did it? >> because he's been re-elected already. he has nothing to lose. he actually believes in the conversation. >> i agree with that. >> one of the great things about being a second term president you can move forward policy and leaf a legacy and he's genuinely concerned with the fact that a certain population, poor people, black people, brown people or oversentenced on this issue and he wants that to stop. >> last comment. >> mark brings up a brilliant point. he didn't have the guts to say this before he was running for re-election. as much as he claimed he did, then why didn't he bring it up five years ago or four years ago or six years ago. he got re-elected okay let's go off the record on pot so no one has to vote for me again so i don't care. >> mark, you can respond. >> i never say that. the president has guts. all politicians make decisions in the second term than their first term. >> one thing we agree on there's two vastly different views on this topic which mirrors the debate in the country which is why it's a great discussion. thanks guys. great to see you. >> happy mlk day. >> chris, back to you. >> coming up on "new day" celebrities and social media not a good mix. just ask the newest bachelor orma donna or one direction's less am payne. we'll tell you what got the pc police on their back sides. ll m. so my dog and i we're going to go find it. it's out there somewhere spreading the good word about idaho potatoes and raising money for meals on wheels. but we'd really like our truck back, so if you see it, let us know, would you? thanks. what? over the pizza place on chestnut street the modest first floor bedroom in tallinn, estonia and the southbound bus barreling down i-95. ♪ this magic moment it is the story of where every great idea begins. and of those who believed they had the power to do more. dell is honored to be part of some of the world's great stories. that began much the same way ours did. in a little dorm room -- 2713. ♪ this magic moment ♪ see, i knew testosterone could affect sex drive, but not energy or even my mood. that's when i talked with my doctor. he gave me some blood tests... showed it was low t. that's it. it was a number. 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[ male announcer ] get a 4 week trial plus $100 in extras including postage and a digital scale. go to stamps.com/tv and never go to the post office again. ♪ you can call it the big bachelor back track the star of the latest season of the bachelor is apologizing what he said about same sex couples. he said having them on the show are a bad example. he called them perverts. he's now saying sorry. chris farley is here. >> happy mlk day. >> i guess we have to talk about the apologies. let's start with the bachelor. let's play the sound of what he said. >> there's this thing about gay people that, it seems to me, you know, i don't know if i'm mistaken or not, well i met great, you know, friends like that but they're more pervert in a sense. >> he tried to stem the tide and said english was his second language and he was misinterpreted. >> he was born in new york. in new york state but grew up in venezuela. he says english is his second language. but if you look at his apology on facebook it's almost worse than what he said original aly characterizes gay people as more affectionate and that's why they didn't belong on tv. my whole feeling guys like him should get someone to help him with social immediate area monitor their tweets and facebook posts and apologies so they don't make these kind of mistakes. >> that's the thing. that could very well be the topic right here in general is that a lot of the people that we're going to talk about could be using their publicist to vet some of this. let's move on to one direction. liam payne adored by millions of people. >> and those who don't like one direction. got to add that in. there are people that don't like one direction. >> let's clarify. basically he's facing massive criticism because he tweeted support of willie robinson the member of the family of "duck dynasty". tweeting, huge love to you, your family, huge respect for your business prosperitiys and the family values you still all behold. got a lot of heat. >> he tweeted explanations saying, attacking the media. second mistake people make, attacking the media for a problem you're having, like a tornado destroys the house, no sense punching the air. it won't help. i don't understand why he's doing that. blasting the media doesn't help. he should have signed off and said i'll stop talking about this. he got himself innor troubles. fans, they are attacking the media too. >> the fan of one direction tends to be the younger age, correct? >> yes. >> i wonder if the fans of one direction even know what he was even talking about in that tweet. >> this one over here, you're squirming in your defense. >> these two examples are running up against political correctness. there are a lot of people who believe what the bachelor said. yes. was he auk sfwhard probably. there's an underlying feeling about gay life being different. that is unaccepted in the culture of political correctness but a lot of people feel that way. >> it has nothing to do with political correctness. >> sure it does. what's allowed to be said -- the diversity of opinion is shrinking. this kid comes out, he backs "duck dynasty" which i believe a & e learned a harsh lesson when you quote out of the bible be careful before you criticize someone. i understand the backlash but sometimes they don't see it coming. >> when you're a mainstream product like the bachelor or "duck dynasty", if you're going alienate large sections of your viewership that's not a good idea. >> people don't want to hear that. >> they want to see the fun, they don't want your views on gay life. >> they barely want to hearning. >> next example, madonna. >> do we have time? >> madonna used the n-word on instagram. she described as a hash tag describing a picture of her son calling her son the n-word and said it was a term of affection. >> said it was a term of endearme endearment. very odd thing for her to do. here's the problem with madonna. she deleted the original post, add ad new caption first attacking her critics and then apologized. you can't delete anything online. somebody took a screen shot, somebody can find it. deleting doesn't help the problem it signals to people hey you're not going to stand up to what you said before and trying to cover things up. it made her look bad. >> a lot of these people can use publicists. chris farley great to have you here. >> we'll take a short break. >> absolutely. san with olive garden's best 2 for $25 yet choose two melt-in-your mouth entrees like new parmesan crusted chicken or tortellini topped with velvety alfredo 3 full courses of our best 2 for $25 yet, at olive garden! and better is so easy withrning you cabenefiber.o something better for yourself. fiber that's taste-free, grit-free and dissolves completely. so you can feel free to add it to anything. and feel better about doing it. better it with benefiber. it's not the "juggle a bunch of rotating categories" card. it's not the "sign up for rewards each quarter" card. it's the no-games, no-messing-'round, no-earning-limit-having, do-i-look-like-i'm-joking, turbo-boosting, heavyweight-champion- of-the-world cash back card. this is the quicksilver cash back card from capital one. unlimited 1.5% cash back on every purchase, everywhere, every single day. now tell me, what's in your wallet? ♪ obviously today is martin luther king, jr. day. if you're going to measure a man's impact or someone's impact on how their words live on certainly he's a great man. my 10-year-old is learning one of his speeches in school and to hear the words they really do ring true today. we need him today just as many as any. take some time to reflect. it's a good day to do that. a lot of news. let's get to you the "newsroom," miss carol costello. >> thanks so much. "newsroom" starts now. good morning. thank you so much for joining me. i'm carol costello. this morning a new scandal overshadowing new jersey governor chris christie and his possible bid in the next presidential election. latest embarrassment now surrounds his lieutenant governor, kim guadagno. she's accused of strong arming the mayor of hoboken.
paulina poroskkova. and my interview with bubba watson. he goes and gets his first win in two years after our interview. bubba is back tonight live presumably to thank me. i begin with break news. crisis in kiev. cnn's phil black is there. he joins me live on the phone. phil, what is the latest going on in kiev right now. >> reporter: right now, piers, it is 4:00 a.m. local time. and despite that there are still thousands of people here occupying independence square. they're all working one way or another. working to try and ensure they can continue to occupy and hold onto the square because they believe the security forces are going to be coming through sometime soon to drive them out. you've got people at the frontline manning shields, others literally tearing up the road creating piles of rubble to be used as ammunition. and now fuelling the big fires that can be seen burning here in the square. to keep those security forces out. >> phil, at its heart for viewers who are not perhaps completely savvy with what is happening here, what is this conflict about? >> reporter: it started a few months ago when the ukrainian government decided at the last minute that it would not pursue a closer relationship with europe and instead wanted to favor its relationship -- its historic relationship with russia and rebuild that relationship. move the economy closer to russia again. ukraine ace country that's really split down the middle between those who consider themselves ukrainian and close to europe, those who consider themselves closer to russia. so there is the divide. and the people on the street here and in other ukrainian cities are those that are so angry with the idea of moving closer to russia that they are prepared to really put their lives at risk and try and mount their own revolution, piers. >> very dangerous, fluid, volatile situation. phil black thank you very much. please stay safe there tonight. big story now, reaction to what we just heard from giuliani rudy giuliani. rudy welcome first of all. uprisings in kiev, venezuela. are there any parallels? what is going on in both these countries? >> there are parallels. one is much more long term than the other. the parallels are to a very autocratic, oppressive government where people are seeing what's going on in the rest of the world and want some freedom for themselves. in the case of the ukraine, it's a much deeper, longer struggle. these are people who have wanted to be part of the european union for the last 10, 12 years. the orange revolution. thought that they had kind of brought it there. unfortunately there were setbacks. and then yushenko won the election, probably a corrupt elections with putin kind of organizing things for him. the country was very much behind making moves to joint european union until russia came in and threatened them really. and i think what you see in the streets are people wanting to become a modern country. as long as they are under the domination of russia they will never be a modern country. as long as they're a quasi member of the soviet union, which is what they used to be, they're never going to be able to become a modern country. two-thirds of the country supports that, maybe even three quarters. >> at what point does the united states get involved in either what's happening in kiev or what's happening in venezuela? >> i think the administration has done a pretty good job. you know i don't say that too much, right? i think the administration has done a pretty good job of supporting the people in kiev and the people in the ukraine who want to join the european union in fact i think they're actually out in front of the european union which occasioned the comment about the european union that was so controversial. but i think kind of a source of frustration that europe wasn't helping us do enough. military action, maybe some support, maybe some help. i don't know you want to do a military invention. that would just invite a russian military intervention. >> rudy, i'm going to talk to later in the show a director of a powerful documentary oscar nominated about tahrir square and the uprising in egypt and all the consequences there. has not gone very smoothly, the transition to freedom and democracy, whatever you want to call it the arab spring. what are the lessons we can learn from egypt? in particular if you try to connect the dots here with other uprisings, kiev, venezuela, whatever. >> we have to know what we're replacing the bad guy with. in mubarek we went from bad to worse. and gadhafi possibly. kiev we really don't have that problem in kiev there is a very substantial two-thirds, three quarters of the population that would like to be a liberal democracy tied to europe. i don't think that issue exists in kiev. venezuela it may exist. venezuela we've been cut off from for a long time. there is a very large middle class in venezuela. there are a lot of of business interests in venezuela. my guess is if we could get rid of this government we would end up with a better government in venezuela. but that might have more of the risk that we see in egypt and some of the other places. >> are the egypt people better off or worse off because of the arab spring uprising? >> that's a very good question. and a very hard question to answer yes or no. i would say they're better off with an awful lot of blood, unfortunately, spilled to get there. maybe that wasn't necessary to have all that blood spilled. they went through the brotherhood phase, the generals are too oppressive but they're a lot better off with the generals than they were with the brotherhood. and i think ultimately they're going to move further toward democracy. i think it will eventually work out but it's been a very rocky period of time. >> let's turn to something i'd like to know, which is the jimmy fallon debut. you popped up. let's take a look. >> i lost a bet. what could i do? >> let's take a look. >> to my buddy who said that i'd never be the host of "the tonight show" you know who your. you owe me 100 bucks, buddy. [ cheers and applause ] >> thank you for moving back to new york. >> it is a kind of iconic moment, isn't it? so few hosts of the show. >> for me a couple of things. first of all coming back to new york. when johnny carson left new york i was heart broken. anybody who left new york i was always opposed to. i loved going on the letterman show because he stuck with new york. it's fabulous he's brought it back to new york. this is the place we should have the shows. we have a lot more interesting people to interview than the west coast. >> what do you think of his style? >> jimmy? i know jimmy from being on "saturday night live" with him. i did a skit with him on "saturday night live" in the 1990s in which he played joe peschi and tracy morgan played mayor berry of washington and they tried to sell me drugs. then jimmy fallon beat mayor berry over the head with a baseball bat. then i sit with jimmy at yankee games. he's a rare talent. combination of great stand up comedian, dancer, singer, actor. i think he may actually be a little more of a kind of old-fashioned variety show rather than just monologue. i think there'll be the monologue but i think you'll see a lot of skits, a little bit more like -- not quite like the old sid ceasar show. he just died. which i grew up on. >> what was the atmosphere like backstage? >> there i was with joe namath and lady gaga who my daughter went to high school with. >> really? >> yes. she was a different lady gaga. >> wonderful bit of name dropping. >> a little bit different when she was at sacred heart academy. than the lady gaga i saw last night. i had to kind of go like that with my eyes. mariah carey. >> do you ever get offended by any of these late night guys? >> you mean when they attack me? >> yeah. >> no, gosh, i went on the letterman show 20 times. dave would attack me sometimes. i went on the leno show and leno would attack me. it's part of the humor. i always loved snl. they used to do a pretty good job on me. i even hosted it once. let's talk object ted nugent. he hit the campaign trail with greg abbott, normaler attorney general. he said this about president obama. >> i have obviously failed to galvanize and product if not shame enough americans to be ever vigilant not to let a chicago communist-raised, communist-educated, communist-nurtured subhuman mongrel like the akorn community organizer gangster barack hughes san obama to weasel his way into the top office of the united states of america. >> he said that in january. i can normally deal with ted nugent in a fairly comedic way. i've got to say that i thought was incredibly offensive. you don't talk about the president of the united states in that manner, a subhuman mongrel. >> of course you don't. republican, democrat, doesn't matter. the president of the united states is entitled to our respect. i disagree with many of barack obama's policies. don't think he's been a very good president. i think he's a fine man. i don't see anything about president obama, understand me, a very fine man, very fine family man. i believe he truly believes what he's trying to do. i truly believe he's wrong. >> but he's a man of principle. >> i have tremendous respect for the fact that he not only is the president. i have respect for the fact that he is trying to execute what he truly believes are the right things for the country, which i think is absolutely the wrong thing for the country. but to do those kinds of attacks -- >> should a gop party candidate, a long-standing party member like abbott, should he be having someone like ted nugent around him if he's going to be saying stuff like this? >> i suspect he won't be around for the next appearance. >> rudy, when we come back i want to talk to you about the michael dunn case, not dissimilar to the george zimmerman case and both their claims to be victims here, the real victims. an expert ford technician knows your car's health depends on a full, complete checkup. the works. because when it comes to feeling safe behind the wheel, going the distance and saving at the pump you want it all. get our multi-point inspection with a a synthetic blend oil change, tire rotation, brake inspection and more for $29.95 or less. get a complete vehicle checkup. only at your ford dealer. [ male announcer ] this man has an accomplished research and analytical group at his disposal. ♪ but even more impressive is how he puts it to work for his clients. ♪ morning. morning. thanks for meeting so early. oh, it's not a big deal at all. come on in. [ male announcer ] it's how edward jones makes sense of investing. ♪ you're an emailing, texting, master of the digital universe. but do you protect yourself? ♪ apparently not. when you access everything, you give everyone access to everything about you. but that's ok. while you do your thing... [ alert rings ] we'll be here at lifelock, doing our thing. watching out for things your credit card alone can't. [ alert rings ] and relentlessly protecting your identity. get lifelock protection and live life free. [ alert rings ] rudy giuliani let's turn to this case this week. michael dunn and george zimmerman george zimmerman. two unarmed black teenagers shot dead. this is a clip here from michael dunn talking to his fiancee which came out today. >> i was thinking about that today. i was like i'm the [ mute ] victim here. i was the one who was victimized. i mean, i don't know how else to put it. like they attacked me. i'm the victim. >> right. >> i'm the victor, but i was the victim, too. >> i mean, there are many disturbing aspects of even that one exchange. >> right. >> the laughter, the slightly sneering tone. but the sense that he and george zimmerman both feel they're still the victims even though these two kids are dead, and that he goes further and says that he was the victor. what do we do, rudy? this is a wider question for you i think as somebody who's had to tackle gun violence new york. >> right. >> what do we do about the fact that the gun appears in these two gentlemen's hands to have emboldened them to become killers when in many countries around the world they wouldn't be that embold and because they wouldn't have a firearm in their hands. >> i don't agree with you, piers. i don't think it's the gun, it's two very strange individuals. zimmerman and dunn are different. i don't think the two cases are the same. zimmerman got acquitted. he got found not guilty. this guy got convicted of 25 years to life. so that jury did not accept his explanation. maybe they didn't find him guilty of first degree murder. but they found him guilty of attempted murder. and he's going to face a bare minimum of 25 years in jail to the rest of his life in jail. if he thinks he was the victor he's a real fool. >> right. i think there's no question of that. he's also from other transcript that is came out a racist clearly, too. but again i come back to this issue of the gun. there are not many countries of the 23 richest countries in the world where a dispute over noise or a kid looking suspicious walking along a street or as we saw somebody texting the baby care center when he's watching a movie with his girlfriend that would lead to somebody being shot dead. and yet all the time now in america we're hearing that this casual loss of life through guns. >> right. >> at what point does the gun itself not become a major issue? >> well, the gun is a major issue. it has to be handled in the right way, controlled in the right way. but the reality is that most of this comes about because we have these disturbed human beings who are carrying out these acts. we've had mass murders in countries in europe, and we have murder rates in some countries that are greater than murder rates in the united states. >> i'm not talk about the mass shootings. and i'm not even sure that these people that i'm talking about, whether it's zimmerman or dunn or the retired police captain in the movie theater, i don't think they would be categorized necessarily as mentally unstable. they would probably pass every background check. it's the ready willingness of people to walk around armed and getting into disputes and settling it with a gun how do you change that culture? >> you change the culture by changing the way people behave, not necessarily by the gun. the reality is that -- i remember a case in florida about seven or eight years ago, two people were on a line waiting to get into a movie theater. they got into a dispute and one man killed the other man with his fists. i remember another one where he killed someone with a knife. so i don't think we're you're going to stop that by just concentrating on the gun. i took more guns out of new york city than probably any mayor. >> right. you did take tough action. >> i took guns out of the hands of bad people. but the idea that decent people who have guns can't protect themselves with guns, that's a valid idea. it's in our constitution. not much we can do about it. you can make the argument that having a gun protects as much as it hurts. what we have to do is concentrate on keeping it out of the hands of bad people. we got to take all the illegal guns off the streets. we've got to penalize people who have guns and use them improperly. but you're fighting a losing battle if you think you're going to take guns out of america. just not going to happen. it's too much a part of our culture. beyond that it's in our constitution. >> be interesting to come back and have that conversation 100 years, rudy. >> 100 years from now we can do it. >> let's try to preserve your life and mine and come back in the next 100 years. >> in the next ten there have got to be other strategies we could use. they've tried this for 30 years. it doesn't work. you got to understand the culture of the united states and the constitution of the united states and then you have to work with it. i thought i did. i think that's how i reduced murder by 60%. >> you did a lot of good stuff on guns. britain used to be a massive gun culture country and we're not anymore. 29 murders last year. >> you're much more homogenous country and easier to do things like that. we're a much more diverse country. we have this whole history both cultural and constitutional with guns that's very, very difficult to override. so you have to kind of figure out how to work with it and then bring down the number of guns. >> rudy giuliani, making a lot of sense as always. good to see you. >> thank you, piers. a pleasure. the violence tonight in kiev a lot like what we saw three years ago in tahrir square. that's "the square" the oscar nominated documentary film. welcome to you. it's incredibly powerful, also incredibly good timing. because you're now seeing in kiev and venezuela other uprisings. none of them are exactly the same. the general i guess thread of them all is young people in particular saying we have had enough. when we look at egypt, this is what your film centers on, i asked rudy giuliani earlier, are the egyptian people better off or are they worse off because of the arab spring uprising. what do you think? >> well, just to talk about what you were saying earlier, it is incredible. it's incredible that there are squares that have been exploding around the world. and although the particulars of each situation are different, it is about young people that are claiming their rights. and people dish think what's important to remember is that those people in egypt are still fighting to claim their rights. we're talking about an ongoing struggle. and it's a dark time in egypt. there are people that are in jail. >> is there any real difference between the way egypt is being run now by the military to the way it was being run for the last 40 years, albeit with ma mubarek as a figure head? have things improved? have they moved on? >> if you see the film you see it focuses on three characters who are struggling for change in egypt. and what's happening right now in terms of the military taking control again, many people have said, okay, this is a really dark time. because we've gone back to square one. if you talk to our characters and people on the ground, though, they are deeply optimistic. because they know that struggle is going to happen over a very long time. change happens very slowly. and so the important thing is that there's a staying power to this movement. and if you look at the civil rights movement or any struggle, some of the biggest compliments we've gotten has been people who have fought during the civil rights movement. >> what you need it seems to me, in all these cases, civil rights, you had martin luther king. in south africa there was nelson mandela. you need great leaders to drive these kind of revolutions. is there a great leader in egypt right now that you could say in 20 years' time it was that person, man or woman, who led this for us? >> what ahmed says in the film, the main character of the film. he says first we need to develop a consciousness. and out of that will come a leader. and that's very important. because that's what young people are fighting for around the world. and we often hear from the people with the biggest megaphones, the people that have p.r. agents, the people like in our particular case the head of the muslim brotherhood and the head of the military. but what film can do and what our film has been able to do is remind us that there are human beings -- real human beings with families that are still struggling and we're still in the midst of that struggle. and what's been incredible about this film getting out there in the way that it has is that -- and the kind of support that we've gotten from the oscar nomination is that people on the ground now realize that there are people that are halfway across the world that believe in their struggle and that will continue to support them. and that's what the power of witness is. during the first 18 days before mubarek stepped down, the absolutely impossible happened, right? mubarek was able to step down when we never imagined that would be possible. that was because it wasn't just the protesters versus mubarek. it was the protesters plus the world attention plus journalists like you that were filming. and the world attention, paying attention to what was happening. and that's what's happening now again with kiev and with the release of our film is that people are saying we care. because the success of egypt and the success for the struggle of human rights and social freedoms and justice is important to the entire world because our lives are interconnected. and the success in one square determines the success in another square. >> a victory i guess at the oscars just gives you a huge global platform to share the message of the film, right? >> well, i think that's exactly right. i mean, the thing that is -- we're so excited to just be nominated to begin with. but the fact is that what ahmed said when we told him we were nominated for the oscar and there's a potential win, he says what's exciting about that is that our story will never be able to be silenced. and that's what's so important about this nomination is the fuel that comes with it. because this is about the civil rights struggle and the struggle for human dignity of our time. so the international recognition of that is supporting that. >> best of luck, jahan. it's a very exciting time for you. terrific film, very powerful. urge people to go and see it. might win the oscar. >> thank you very much. nice to see you. " the square" is currently available on netflix and screenings nation-wide. coming up imagine your child being so severely tormented in school she wants to change her face. i'll talk to one teenage girl who did just that and the plastic surgeon who helped her. . did you run into traffic? no, just had to stop by the house to grab a few things. you stopped by the house? uh-huh. yea. alright, whenever you get your stuff, run upstairs, get cleaned up for dinner. you leave the house in good shape? yea. yea, of course. ♪ [ sportscaster talking on tv ] last-second field go-- yea, sure ya did. 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[ car alarm chirps ] hurry in to the mercedes-benz certified pre-owned sales event. visit today for exceptional offers. ♪ ♪ male narrator: there's something positive being generated in california. when ordinary energy is put in the hands of extraordinary people, amazing things happen. the kind of things that drive us to do more, to go further, to be better. we're dedicated to being a company you can count on, because you've always been customers we believe in. your energy plus ours. together, there's no limit to what we can achieve. most parents would do just about anything to protect their children from being bullied. but would you help your child have plastic surgery. joining me is a mother and thomas roamer founder of little baby face foundation. welcome to all three of you. renatta, let me staat with you. you were unhappy with the way you looked why? >> well, because everyone always said that i looked bad. and i started to believe it. so i didn't like the way i looked. >> you were being bullied by other kids? >> yeah, at my school. >> what were they saying to you? how were they bullying you? >> they were just laughing behind my back at the time. they always said that's the girl with the big nose. they never called me by my name. >> how did that make you feel? >> i felt terrible about myself. i didn't want to leave the house anymore. >> it's every parent's nightmare of their child being bullied. there's a picture of renatta. i wouldn't say she was bad to look at before. but she was being bullied by other kids how did you feel? >> i tried to encourage her to feel better about her self and not pay attention to what the other kids were saying. there was so much negativity that was building on her confidence and self-esteem. >> doctor, it's a very difficult issue. want to read you what a psychologist said. she told nbc, are we saying the responsibility now falls on the kid who's bullied to alter themselves surgicallily? we have to address the idea there should be zero tolerance of bullying and encouraging acceptance of differences. notwithstanding what you do which is incredibly laudable in so many ways, do you understand that argument against it? >> of course. no one agrees that we should have bullying. but to think that we're going to stop bullying by attacking the bull bullies it may or may not occur. but to take children who have loss of self-esteem. renatta had not been to school for two years because of loss of self-esteem. she had seen a psychologist who recommended she get some kind of help to change the way she looked. the mission station of the foundation is to take children with birth defects and provide them surgery for low income families. that's how she got picked. bullying was what became recognized as we went through the process of evaluating her for a candidate of the little baby face foundation. >> right. you don't charge for this kind of surgery, right? >> no, everything, room and board, transportation to new york along with a parent, the foundation emphasizes children from the united states. unlike most of the foundations go to underdeveloped countries, we take care of kids from the states and all the fees are paid for including surgery and the hospitals allow to us do these surgeries. >> renatta, how did you feel after the surgery and everything had calmed down and you were back to normal but looking different and looked in the mir are. how did you feel? >> i felt pretty good about myself. i felt like i was a normal kid again and i could actually look at myself without wanting to cry. >> you also, you encouraged a slightly further step in having some chin surgery as well so that her face would look consistent? is that how you would describe it? >> yeah, piers. what happens is she had a diagnosis of what was called hemi facial microsomia. one side of her face was different sized than the other side. an asymmetry in size. her nose and septun and chin, implants were put into her face to balance her face. i think she's very happy now and we're very happy. this is all about the kids. >> is it any different to you, dr. roamer, to say somebody born with cleft lip and palate. i know a kid, have known him since he was two years old who had horrendous disfigurement from that kind of thing. he's had about 20 operations and now a very handsome 22-year-old boy. you'd never really know apart from a little scar here. i totally get how extensive surgery transformed his life for the better. is it the same argument with somebody like renatta? is it just a question of degree? >> it is a question of degree. because again, what we do as a foundation, as a surgical foundation, we take children with mild, moderate and severe birth defects. and they go through our system of being approved by a group of physicians. >> where do you draw the line? this is what fascinates me. where do you draw the line between what renatta went through, two years of hell unable to go to school, being deliberately bullied for the size of her nose. and you could identify a disfigurement that needed fixing and somebody of her age who comes to you wanting a slight nip and tuck. a pure cosmetic thing to look a little bit better? >> yeah. and performing cosmetic surgery in new york for the last 25 years, i see patients like that regularly. >> what is your view of this kind of age when they want that? >> well, they have to academically be of a certain age that is acceptable of any kind of surgery like this. so girls you're not going to start operating on them until they're 14, 15 years old, boys until they're 17, 18 years old in this kind of surgery. >> do you have any personal -- i know you're a great leader in this. do you have any personal ethical issue about people who just want a slight correction to look a ridicule bit prettier rather than a genuine problem like renatta had? >> well, ethical -- >> that's where i personally start to feel uncomfortable when it becomes just -- i've got a young daughter now. when she gets to 14 and says dad i want a nose job and she looks perfectly okay. >> but if your daughter tells you she's being bullied at school, you look at her and she actually has a nose that's overpowering her face and she has buck teeth, you're going to put braces on her and you probably will let her get her nose job done. and that will re-establish her self-esteem. but it's not done precariously. it's done with a diagnosis and with a treatment plan. >> renatta, what's your view of these bullies now, now that you so happy with the way you look, have confidence back? how do you feel about the people who bullied you? >> i feel like i win and not the bullies. they don't have an effect on me anymore. i have my confidence back. nothing they say could ever make me feel bad about myself. >> how do you feel towards dr. roamer? >> i feel the like he's a great doctor. and the foundation is amazing. i think without it i wouldn't be nearly as happy as i am now. and my life wouldn't be nearly as good as it is now. >> michelle, final word to you. what do you feel about all this? >> i'm very thankful that this foundation is able to help children like renatta and other kids. without their help renatta never would have received the help that she has received. >> i'll be honest with you. when i first heard about this i think my reaction was i would be against it instinctively. not really into the whole concept of plastic surgery. having met you and heard the story, i think it's very powerful. i understand why you did this. and you look beautiful. >> thank you. >> so you should get out there, go see these bullies and steal all their boyfriends would be my advice for you. thank you all very much for joining me. more about baby face foundation log onto littlebabyface.org. coming up from beauty to bubba. i'll talk to the supermodel of the two-time "sports illustrated" cover girl, paulina porizkova. and bubba watson who just won his first tournament in over two years after appearing on this show last week. clearly he will be wanting to thank me, won't you, bubba? what you wear to bed is your business. so, if you're sleeping in your contact lenses, ask about the air optix® contacts so breathable they're approved for up to 30 nights of continuous wear. ask your doctor about safety information as serious eye problems may occur. visit airoptix.com for a free one-month trial. that's my end goal, that's my end destination. for me, even a quick weekend trip to kind of reset makes me a better athlete. [ male announcer ] be a weekender like ashley wagner at hotels like hilton and hampton. book now at hiltonweekends.com. the 2014 swimsuit issue of "sports illustrated" features three models. but my next guest managed to hold down the fort all by herself not just once but twice. paulina porizkova is an actress and author. i've spent most of my youth thinking about you. >> you should have let me know. i would really liked to have heard it. today is fine too. >> it's never too late. i might be a creepy old man now but it's never too late. is it? to get more of why you're here what did you think of that last segment? it's a very contentious issue, plastic surgery. >> it is. i have some problems because we're starting to celebrate such a small amount of beauty. it's like the fabulous big noses of the past. like if you think of madam x. the painting with this gorgeous profile. like that wouldn't be gorgeous anymore. like our sense of what's beautiful has narrowed so much. and i guess i'm partly responsible since 20 years ago you were supposed to look like this. >> right. do you feel that responsibility in do you think the pressure on young women today has been driven by that whole supermodel era and the fact that most models these days are pretty skinny and look a certain way? >> yes and no. because i don't think it's so much supermodel-driven, because there's not even really supermodels around anymore. everything is taken over by actresses. what has been taken over is photoshop. everybody can look good. my grandmother could be a supermodel now even though she's dead [ laughter ] >> let me ask you about beauty. who to you is real beauty? if i were to say to you name the most beautiful woman you have ever personally seen. >> i am very fond of tilda swenson, who i think has a very unusual -- >> not a classic beauty at all, right? >> no. but she's so interesting. and there's so much life and talent behind that mathematics of her face. and yes, i will say audrey hepburn. i'm a big audrey hepburn fan. and isabella rossellini. >> who was your biggest rival? you were one of the very few people to be on "sports illustrated" twice. who was the one you woke up in the morning and thought look at her. she looks great. >> there was only me. [ laughter ] >> i love that. i always thought you supermodels were like that. >> totally entirely. >> the rest of you suck, right? >> actually it wasn't anything like that. i wish. this is like me remembering the way i'd like to remember it. when i came on the scene, carol ault, kelly,mberg, on on mademoiselle and vogue. >> i saw christie brinkley. she looks sensational. 60 now. cindy crawford looks amazing. sharon stone tonight is on "shape" magazine looking about 20. >> i know. i'm starting to look like their mother. oh, well. >> well, you don't. trust me. you've been married to your husband, the lead singer, founding member of the cars, for 25 years. >> actually we're going to be celebrating 30. >> 30? >> yeah. not marriage but 30 since we met. >> so 30 years, married for 25. that's pretty extraordinary. if i could have said 25 years ago or 30 years ago, supermodel meets rock star you'd give it about three weeks. >> mm-hmm. >> what has been the secret? >> i do get that question a lot. and i think it's unfortunate that it's really just a question of luck finding the right person at the right time. i just got lucky. it was this dumb blind luck. i found the person i needed at the right time. i knew it. >> you met on a video of the famous song "drive" which was later taken and used for the whole live aid thing. >> being english you remember it from live aid. >> because they put the music to that harrowing footage from africa. it made a huge difference to the fundraiser. quite an iconic thing to be associated with. what's life like for you now? >> what's life like for me? >> what are you most passionate about these days? >> i am passionate about writing. that's what i do now. that's pretty much all i can do since i never really went to school or learned to do anything but look good. and now i'm learning how to look good. because one ages and things don't stay where they used to be. >> you're looking how to look good? do you understand how ludicrous that sounds? people like me have to learn how to look good. >> no. you have something to say. i have to come look like this so people williston me. >> this is your serious look, is it? >> yeah. this is in case i don't say anything witty at least you get boob [ laughter ] >> this has been fun. you've got to come back. >> sure. i told you you could have had me a long time ago. all you needed to do was ask. >> i'm not sure rick would be too happy to hear you say that. >> that's true. >> i can sing if it's any consolation. >> you can sing? >> i am prepared to make an effort for you. >> i kind of fancy men with british accents just generally. >> really? >> yes, i do. i think it's monty python left over. john cleese was one of the first guys i had a crush on. >> john cleese. it's been a pleasure. come back and see me. >> i can't believe i'm ditching paulina porizkova for bubba watson but i am. unbelievable. can't believe i'm doing this. anyway, bubba watson is next. there he is. he can't believe it, either. what's in your ear? oooo! a quarter! check for more! well, i guess i can double check... my watch! [ male announcer ] it pays to double check, with state farm. you're an emailing, texting, master of the digital universe. but do you protect yourself? ♪ apparently not. when you access everything, you give everyone access to everything about you. but that's ok. while you do your thing... [ alert rings ] we'll be here at lifelock, doing our thing. watching out for things your credit card alone can't. [ alert rings ] and relentlessly protecting your identity. get lifelock protection and live life free. [ alert rings ] there you go! >> bubba watson's winning putt sunday at the northern trust open. bubba was here, and i had some friendly ribbing about his failure to win. now he's back with me, bubba watson, winner proud to say of the 2014 northern trust open. bubba, congratulations. >> thank you so much. ann coulter obviously gave me a lot of tips when i was there on the show. obviously it was her not you. >> i want to play a clip from our exchange last week to show our viewers. no wins since the masters since 2012. >> thank you for that. i wanted other people to see what it feels like. >> you got quite angry in that moment. you didn't like me reminding everyone it had been two years sense you had last won at the masters. >> you know what? sometimes i make fun of you and call you names and i want to apologize on the tv here. i want to say i'm sorry for making fun of you, you're an inspiration to millions of people. now they know what not to do in life. so you inspire people to be better than you. >> one of your more tender tributes to me when you hijacked my office. what is nice about you is your son who has all the charm and manners his father lacks. let's watch this lovely clip of caleb urging you on sunday. >> yeah, daddy. >> there he goes! >> we should agree that caleb won it. such a moving moment. how did you feel when you hugged him after winning? >> you know, i cried. that was the moment i cried when i was holding him. being able to see footage later in life, when he gets older, he'll be able to see his dad winning a golf tournament and know what it is and just holding him. it's just an inspiration. adopting him, me and my wife adopted him. just these -- he's a gift from god for us. so it's a pleasure to hold him and be there with me when i won. >> in all seriousness, bubba, we've spoken a lot over the last few years. when you win a tournament on the masters, your life changes forever and your life has changed in so many ways. to win again, though, it must be a big moment for you, because it shows despite all the great stuff you've enjoyed, you've still got the capacity to win a big tournament. does that going forward now really embolden you to win the masters again? >> for sure. when i was looking at it on the last year or so, it's how to improve and become a better father, a better husband. and then at the same time golf, a better golfer. you have to find balance. over the last two years, i found some balance. my golf game is getting better, back to where it should be. i finished second, now a first. hopefully my career keeps going up from here. who knows what it will be? >> bubba, it was brilliant to see you win. i was tweeting about it on sunday. couldn't happen to a nicer guy. please come back soon. send caleb my very best. he won everyone's hearts on sunday and best of luck all summer. we will all be watching. >> thanks for having me. >> lovely guy. we'll be right back. with this annoying runny nose. 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"stubborn love" by the lumineers did you i did. email? so what did you think of the house? did you see the school ratings? oh, you're right. hey babe, i got to go. bye daddy! have a good day at school, ok? ...but what about when my parents visit? ok. i just love this one... and it's next to a park. i love it. i love it too. here's our new house... daddy! you're not just looking for a house. you're looking for a place for your life to happen. boy, you're good. you are good. >> thank you. >> and i'm not just trying to flatter you. that's good. >> when i started this show three years ago, my very first guest was the queen all of media, oprah winfrey. now she's back and she's joined by best friend gayle king and sanjay gupta. they're teaming up to battle an epidemic that's hit 60 million americans. it's loneliness and it could be affecting your health. that's tomorrow. that's all for us tonight. anderson cooper starts right now. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com good evening, everyone. tonight, a city the size of chicago is in flames. it's been all night, and the political inferno is spreading. take a look at kiev, capital of you train, a country that was once part of the old soviet union, and is erupting with the government's decision to align itself more closely with vladamir putin. tonight, government forces moved in and inflicting heavy casualties. the best we can determine right now, 11 protesters, 9 police officers and 1 other person have been killed but expect those numbers to change. they've been rising all night. phil black is in kiev right now and joins us by phone. >> reporter: anderson, there is still a huge crowd here in i would -- in independent square, all of them woin
history degree? that's what president obama said. i will ask a best-selling author with an art history degree. the new yorker's adam gothnick. from dining at midnight to seest ta's at midday, why spain may want to turn back the clock about 70 years. i'll explain. but first, here's my take. 2013 seemed in many ways to be the year of vladimir putin. the russian president had consolidated power in his country, crushed any possible opposition, kept his ally in syria from being toppled and brokered a deal to remove syria's chemical weapons. 2014 was also going pretty well for putin. the sochi olympics was not the disaster many had suggested and above all, putin had maintained russia's historic relationship with ukraine. outmaneuvering the european union which made ukraine a conditional offer that ukraine's president turned down in return for cold russian cash. that's what it had looked like until just a few days ago. but now, on the central issue of ukraine, russia does not look so triumphant. ukraine's president yanukovych, now its former president, overplayed his hand. putin assumed force would solve the problem and disperse the protests. western observers were despairing and assigning blame for all that happened from washington to the european union. and then things started to change. president yanukovych and the opposition made a deal, brokered by the europeans, calling for a coalition government, national elections, and a new constitution. but even that was not enough for the protesters who have managed to achieve change much faster, ousting the president and beginning the process of transformation right away. in this long and complex situation, it is the people on the street who have shown determination, courage and persistence. now what has to be cautious, everything we know about these kinds of revolutions is that this is the thrilling moment which is often followed by turmoil, tension, violence, and chaos. this is going to be particularly true in ukraine which is riddled with corruption and in many ways is on the brink of economic collapse. the opposition will have to act with wisdom and include those whom it despises including the supporters of yanukovych. russia will not allow ukraine to slip from its grasp. russian pipelines chris cross the country, carrying natural gas to europe. russia will demand a say in what happens there as it has for 300 years. that's why the ukrainian opposition needs to approach things with caution and a sense of national unity. russia will have to be careful as the last few weeks have shown it has created a deep sense of opposition among tens of millions of people in ukraine, and their hostility to russian domination might well grow. for now let's marvel at the spirit of the ukrainian people, let's keep our fingers crossed for their future, and let's note that 2014 is not looking quite as good for vladimir putin as it did a week ago. let's get started. now let's go to cnn's fred plitgen in the russian dominated part of ukraine where former president viktor yanukovych is believed to be after fleeing the capital in kiev. fred? is yanukovych there and what is the mood where you are? >> hi, fareed. that's a good question. no one at this point knows where viktor yanukovych is. there were some ru nomors he ca here after leaving kiev and then others who said he tried to get on a flight from donetsks. they said his flatt was not allowed to take off because it didn't have the proper documentation. at this point in time it's unclear where yanukovych is. there are rumors flying around as to his whereabouts but the current government, the new government in place right now, says they have absolutely no idea where he is, fareed. >> what is the mood there? what is the narrative of events? what is the atmosphere? what is the crowd saying over there about what has happened in kiev? >> that's a very interesting question because it's so different than it is in kiev. what you have here is a real divide. you have many people of russian heritage here but you also have a lot of pro-europeans, especially younger people. right behind me you have a demonstration that's pro-russian. the russians are fearful. they were surprised by how quick all the events went and now they really fear their culture here in this country is under threat, that their language might be under threat. they fear their culture is under threat. they fear the russians in this country might be marginalized. you can see that on the street. they're demonstrating for a statute of lennen the pro-european movement wants to tear down. they say that's not going to heap. they've erected a fence around it and say they're going to stay there as long as it takes. it is a charged up mood here in east of ukraine, very, very different than the scenes of jubilation you see in kiev, fareed. >> thanks so much, fred. let us go to phil black in the capital of kiev. it has been a wild turn of events since the peace deal on friday. phil, is tymoshenko, the jailed opposition leader who has been released, is she now in charge or who is in charge and is everyone listening to the new government? >> well, fareed, i think at the moment it is the opposition together acting as one maintaining unity that are directing events in parliament. so in that sense that's a positive step. yulia tymoshenko when she was on stage here last night, returning to independence square, speaking to the crowd when i spoke to her afterwards, briefly, she certainly sounded like someone who wants to maintain or play a very dominant role in the future politics of this country. today, however, she has released a statement saying she's not interested in being the prime minister. the prime minister under the new constitutional arrangement will be quite a powerful role. but her daughter told me that she's someone who wants to play a role in uniting the country which i think very strongly implies she's got her eye on the presidency. she's got to face competition for that from within her own party while she's been in prison and the former heavy wealt vitaliy zbignievita vitaly zakharchenko. the opposition here will be maintaining unity and not tear down this country in the past. >> thank you, phil. we are now going to go to roddick, the foreign minister of poland, one of the three foreign ministers on friday brokered a peace deal between the government of ukraine and opposition forces. it is not entirely clear what happens to that deal since events have overtaken it. as the deal was wrapped up, television cameras picked up an exchange between he and the leaders of the ukrainen opposition. in it he said, if you don't support this deal you will have marshal law, you will have the army and be dead. joining us from milan is roddick. did you -- were you surprised by the turn of events? clearly your great fear when you were talking to those ukrainian opposition leaders was that yanukovych was going to bring out the army and start firing on the troops and lie down? >> hello, fareed. yes, that was a tense moment and i think the opposition hadn't supported the deal, yanukovych's hand would have been strengthened and maybe his security operations would not have disintegrated. and then what happened was something really strange. within minutes of us signing the agreement, the protection, the security forces, started leaving the vicinity of the presidential palace which they didn't need to do, and the decompression of the regime started very quickly. >> you've seen this up close in poland. you've seen in other places. what do you think is happening? do you think that this is now a complete collapse of yanukovych and his regime? will they fight back? or do you think the opposition is now firmly in control? >> well, we have a legitimate source of authority in kiev which is the democratically elected parliament and a democratly constitutionally elected speaker of parliament who is acting president, and that, i think, is the source of authority that needs to be uniting the country. they need to be inclusive, they need to represent the kind of spirit of compromise that the agreement envisioned, and they have to respect the regional and ethnic variety of ukraine. i think the friday agreement has been superseded by events apart from anything else, president yanukovych was supposed to sign literally by now the change of constitution and we have no news of him having done that, so you might say that the agreement is not being affected because events have gone ahead. but the spirit of it, the compromise, the inclusively, the respect for diversity, i hope lives on and i hope ukraine creates the kind of government which starts implementing difficult, necessary reforms that will prevent bankruptcy and hopefully put ukraine back on the european track. because remember, fareed, your introduction was excellent but it didn't mention one thing, namely how it all started. it all started with president yanukovych refusing to sign the association agreement with europe and the protests that -- against that decision. >> one thing i noticed was that there was a russian envoy at your negotiations but he did not sign the agreement. then russian officials, including the foreign minister, have said things that have not been complimentary to say the least about the turn of events recently, even characterizing it as a coup. do you think russia will accept what is happening in ukraine right now? >> ambassador lukin played a constructive role in the negotiation and initialled the agreement we reached at the door. he was then under instructions from moscow not to sign it. but within 24 hours, when president yanukovych's authority started unraveling, the russians actually then began to like the agreement and wanted it respected. i think just like president yanukovych, they also overplayed their hand. but the new ukrainian government needs to be in touch, need s s have a conversation with russian, which is an important neighbor, just like poland, because apart from anything else ukraine needs the lower gas price and doesn't want russia to play the separatist card. >> i think it was in george bush's memoirs, i might be incorrect, but in george w. bush's memoirs, i think he recounts a conversation where putin said to him, you know, george, ukraine is not a real country, it is a province of russia, may have this slightly wrong but that is the general attitude that people assumed, that many in russia, including the -- those at the top, feel about ukraine. do you think russia would ever allow ukraine to be a fully independent country with an association with the european union? >> ukraine is a fully independent country and her sovereignty and her borders are actually guaranteed by the declaration of the united states, united kingdom and russia. remember, ukraine gave up voluntarily its nuclear weapons and in return she received those guarantees and i think we should hold russia to those guarantees. and eastern ukraine, these are large areas. ukraine is a country of over 40 million people. this is no georgia. and playing with separatism would be a very dangerous game. >> at the end of the day, do you think the ukrainian opposition will hold? one of your concerns clearly was to get them to compromise. you've been in the room with these people. do they have the ability to stay together? >> ukraine missed her chances before, after the revolution, for example, and some of the players are the same. and by the way, my sense is that the madan wants a new class of people. clean people. part of this movement was against clip tocracy. but there are people in -- that i've talked to who are capable, who know what needs to be done and who would have the confidence both of the west and ability to talk to russia. >> thank you very much. >> lots more ahead. a great panel to talk about the situation in ukraine and outside. are you still sleeping? 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[ male announcer ] new glucerna advance. from the brand doctors recommend most. ♪ turn around ♪ every now and then i get a little bit hungry ♪ ♪ and there's nothing really good around ♪ ♪ turn around ♪ every now and then i get a little bit tired ♪ ♪ of living off the taste of the air ♪ ♪ turn around, barry ♪ finally, i have a manly chocolatey snack ♪ ♪ and fiber so my wife won't give me any more flack ♪ ♪ i finally found the right snack ♪ ♪ so i got the new nokia lumia icon. it's got 1080p video, three times zoom, and a twenty-megapixel sensor. it's got the brightest display, so i can see what i'm shooting -- even outdoors, and 4 mics that capture incredible sound. plus, it has apps like vine -- and free cloud storage. my new lumia icon is so great, even our wipeouts look amazing. ♪ honestly, i want to see you be brave ♪ ♪ now i want to bring in a great panel of experts david remnick editor of "the new yorker" reported from russia plane years and was in sochi. nicolas kristof and robin wright "author of "rock the kabash: rage and rebellion across the islamic world." welcome, all. david, i've got to start with you since you are back from russia, what do you think is going on here? is this a game putin is playing or is it fair to say that even the liberal russian friends i have, all sort of think ukraine is part of russia? >> in russia's eyes ukraine geostrategically, ethnically, historical historically, is one in the same. not one in the same, but linked in by blood. if you look through putin's eyes specifically, this is his area of interest. not the united states, and even not to europe. this is really complicated for us. >> he's not going to let it go quietly. >> absolutely not. >> do you think after sochi, it frees him up, that he's been constrained? >> well, i think frees him up makes it sound nice. what might well happen after sochi is some of the slight liberalizing gestures right before sochi letting free pussy riot and the magnate in jail for a decade and other gestures those are going to be off the boards and i think putin is in a very tough, assertive mode and it has nothing to do with snowboarding. it has to do with his geostrategic regional interest, it has to do with differentiating himself from the west, morally as well as politically, and i think he's a very, very tough figure to deal with now. >> nick, your family actually, again, comes from ukraine. your father grew up in ukraine. do you think that, again, are we overplaying this ethnic difference. some people say to me and ann applebalm wrote in "the washington post" this is all fashion thinking, the implication there's a new generation of ukrainians and they all want to be free of russian domination. >> i think that divide goes very, very deep. you know, it's regional, it's linguistic and religious and in the west everybody knows people who have gone to poland, prospered there, and then you see at home the country is stagnating. it's not just resentment at the political repression. it's also resention at the village in southwestern ukraine. the roads are worse now than when my dad lived there in the 1940s. and the resentment of corruption. all that is much more felt in the west than in the east. >> robin wright, i'm going to ask you to start us off when we come back. we have to take a break right now. lots more ahead. you get sick, t breathe through your nose... suddenly you're a mouthbreather. well, put on a breathe right strip and instantly open your nose up to 38% more than cold medicines alone. so you can breathe and sleep. shut your mouth and sleep right. breathe right. like carpools... polly wants to know if we can pick her up. yeah, we can make room. yeah. 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[ squirrel ] it's pepto to-go. there are lots of other stories to talk about this week. unrest in venezuela, nuclear talks with iran, the sochi games, of course. we have a great package. david remnick is the editor of "the new yorker," nicolas kristof reporter and columnist for "the new york times" and robin wright, author of "rock the kabash: rage and rebellion across the islamic world." welcome. robin, i want to start with you. when you watch what's happening in ukraine, this all feels good and it feels tell genic, happening in real time, but the experience at least the arab world has been, it's very easy to get rid of a bad government. it's very hard to put in place a good government. >> this is when the hard part begins. you have to get all these diverse forces together and come up with constitutional reforms and then address the very economic, social and political issues that drove people to go out -- to turn out in independence square. we've learned through kind of the last 60, 70 years in the dramatic transitions throughout the world, is as sam huntington, your former colleague at harvard wrote, it takes at least three waves. we've seen this in ukraine already. in 1990/ '91 the anti-soviet protest, 2004/2005 the orange revolution and today a decade later you see the uprising at independence square. it takes time as we look at what's happened elsewhere in the world in south africa, black today are worse off than they were under apartheid. the reality is the end of the soviet union you still have a generation later of former communist and kgb chief in power. change takes hellishly long. >> when i look at what's happened in venezuela, student uprising leading to anti-government protests and part of what's going on, chavez for all his flaws was popular, charismatic. this guy isn't and has to use brute force. >> chavez used violent rhetoric but he didn't for the most part actually use violence on people. he was a magnetic person. he had charisma. maduro does not. that leads him to be more repressive and creates potentially a more dangerous situation in venezuela. >> nick, you've been for a more assertive pro-democracy stand, i suppose one would call it, in a place like syria. do you think the obama administration should be more engaged actively in venezuela, in ukraine? >> you know, i think we don't have a lot of leverage in either place. in -- i think we can marginally raise the cost of massacres in ukraine, but only marginally. i think we do have influence on the opposition. in the orange revolution i remember everybody hearing i was an american wanting know sign their orange ribbons. all that is pretty modest. i think for the most part we're going to be bystanders in both places. >> david, a lot of people focus on this and think about putin and think about obama versus putin. and certainly there does seem to be the kind of -- there is a feeling that there is something new about the way in which putin is, you know, whether on syria, whether on these issues, whether on, you know, gay right, there's something going on in a kind of an assertion of russia, of putin, of his authority. you're just back from there. you have this big piece in the new york new yorker. >> putin came to office when there were hundreds of thousands of people on the streets asserting not just gay rights but democratic impulses and all the rest. not necessarily the majority of the country but an extremely successful series of demonstrations and putin came into office and his first order of priority was to crush it. to crush it. he will not count against that because he sees what happens in tahrir square, in the orange revolution. he sees what happens in large squares all over the world and he will not allow that to happen in russia. he has what bridges on a paranoia about it and thinks the united states is trying to ferment it in russia or ukraine. so when the victoria nuland phone call, so well publicized in russia, fed into this fervor and putin was eager to publicize it, putin is trying to establish and re-establish russia as a source of power and greatness again after a generation of demoralization. >> and probably is popular in that sense. >> in some ways yes. and it's not just geopolitical. it's moral and ideological. you're starting to see the creation of a kind of putin-like conservatism that by the way was endorsed on line by one pat buchanan. that's what the anti-gay propaganda law is about, all the speech is about, the kind of -- the west good and evil are the same and the reevaluation of history, that's what that has to do. it's a wholistic look at the position of russia and the world and putin wants to be the peter the great of it. instead of looking west, it's looking inward. >> it was a conservative nationalism the new glue to hold the country together. >> he hopes so and hopes it counteracts any uprising in the op po sit direction. >> talks are under way. you were in iran, you're going back there. the big question everyone has, is the supreme leader and the conservative forces in tehran behind the kind of painful concessions that it would take to get a deal here on the iranian side? >> i think the iranian calculations on the nuclear deal involve a lot more. they've gone through a strategic recalculation that a decade ago when the united states moved into the region and eliminated its two big rivals, the taliban and afghanistan and saddam hussein in iraq/iran looked like it had the muscle in the region. today ironically iran feels vulnerable because it's seeing the rise of al qaeda, the sunni salafis, the potential comeback of the taliban and it shares many common interests with the united states. it's also at a point that it has enough technologically in terms of a weapon that it feels confident in brokering. it's just a matter of saying, whether they have the incentive to develop a weapon, if they wanted to turn around and make it they could. the question is can they be stopped from wanting to do it? i think they actually feel that they are at that turning point. i often say that iranians want to get back into their traditional place in the world. if you want to understand persia nationalism think of your most chauvinistic texan and add 5,000 years and you begin to see it's not just the kind of regional player they want to be, they want to be back on the world stage, the great place it was before. all of this comes together and i think is one of the reasons we're likely to see them really try get a nuclear deal and even try to do it in the six months allocated. >> very optimistic. thank you for joining us. robin wright, nicolas kristof, david remnick. lots more including the story of one european nation that wants to turn its clocks back all to save the economy. i will explain. peace of mind is important when you're running a successful business. so we provide it services you can rely on. with centurylink as your trusted it partner, you'll experience reliable uptime for the network and services you depend on. multi-layered security solutions keep your information safe, and secure. and responsive dedicated support meets your needs, and eases your mind. centurylink. your link to what's next. cut! [bell rings] this...is jane. her long day on set starts with shoulder pain... ...and a choice take 6 tylenol in a day which is 2 aleve for... ...all day relief. hmm. [bell ring] "roll sound!" "action!" introducing cardioviva: the first probiotic to help maintain healthy cholesterol levels without a prescription. cardioviva. now for our what in the world segment. >> here's your host, jimmy fallon! >> this week jimmy fallon took over as host of "the tonight show." more than 11 million americans tuned in at midnight to watch his debut, about 3.5% of the population. >> thank you. pl please have a seat. thank you, everybody. >> americans love their late night tv. but there's one country that loves it even more, spain. an estimated 25% of spaniards are up watching tv at midnight according to jim yeardley in a piece in "the new york times" this week. not just tv. staying up late is part of the culture. restaurants rarely serve dinner until well after 10:00 p.m. according to one survey spaniards sleep on average 53 minutes less than other europeans. during the day spaniards are known for taking long lunches and breaks and, of course, siestas. well, a number of spanish economists are saying this needs to stop. by some accounts spain loses 8% of its gdp to reduced productivity. so what can be done? one suggestion is, that spain turn its clocks back. on greenwich time you have countries like the u.k., of course, but also portugal and ireland. spain falls in pretty much the same longitudal range but spain is an hour ahead of england along with france, germany, poland and other european countries. it wasn't always so. before world war ii, spain kept the same time as britain. but during the war, when hitler sought to gain spain's support the spanish dictator franco moved to align his country's clocks with those of germany's. seven decades later that remains the case, despite spain's geographic location. economists say that turning the clocks back would make spaniards more productive and boost the economy. it's an interesting thesis and i don't know if it would work. the good news is that spaniards are thinking hard about improving their economy. we tend to think of spain as a european basket case. unemployment is at 26%. youth unemployment is double that. every second person between the age of 18 and 25 is out of a job. spain has been in a recession for several years. the eurozone has had to bail it out so that it could avoid default. beyond those headlines there is now some good news. after years of recession, gdp has finally begun to grow by 0.3% in the last quarter. economists predict double that rate in 2014. exports grew nearly 6% last year and will grow by that amount once again this year. spain's main stock market is up by a third since june. foreign investors are back, even bill gates bought a $150 million stake in a spanish construction firm. what's changed? well, spain has been willing to take its medicine and put in place some tough economic reforms. both the public and private sectors have become leaner and more efficient. in the face of stiff opposition, madrid has raised the retirement age, it's tweaked the rules to make jobs more flexible. companies can hire and fire more easily. spain's relative labor costs have declined steadily even as those of germany, france and italy have risen. all of these measures have made spain more competitive, boosting exports. growth is bringing in tax revenues and stabilizing the country's finances. but madrid can and should do more. spain's revenue from taxes as a fraction of total gdp remains among the lowest in all of europe. and the greatest challenge remains unemployment. especially youth unemployment. if spain can't create jobs, an entire generation of spaniards will be lost. european countries have accepted painful austerity measures, but what they really needed what structural reforms. i don't know if turning the clocks back will make much of a dent, but if it sparks a conversation about productivity in general, it is high time. up next, a different economic question. what is more important? technical skills or knowledge of art history? we have an answer. 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take a listen to what president said at a speech at a ge plant last month. >> folks, you can make a lot more potentially with skilled manufacturing or the trades than they might with an art history degree. >> those words upset ann so much she wrote an e-mail to the president. she was shocked when she got a handwritten apology back. but did the president's off the cuff remarks have a point? should we be pushing kids toward the trade skills he mentioned? what is the value of art history? let's ask an art history major who has managed to make a decent living. adam gopnik has been writing for "the new yorker" for almost 20 years and written a slew of wonderful books including my favorite " paris to the moon" and my kids' favorite "the steps across the water." a wonderful children's book. adam, what was your reaction as an art history major when you first heard what the president said? >> you have to say, if the apology tour has come to art historians it's at the absolute last stop. he apologized to muslim, russians and finally to art history majors. here's what i thought. i thought it spoke well for the presidentp. he has a lovely self-consciousness. he knows when to apologize. but i thought this, what he was saying was alarming a little bit because what it implied is that there's a kind of consensus that the arts, art, history, english, whatever it might be are secondary to our lives and i've been trying to think of ways in which you can counter that. it seems to me the wrong way to try to counter that is to say, oh, well, art history majors end up working for google anyway, software entrepreneurs in any case. that sometimes is true. that's true more often than not. steve jobs cared much more about the courses he took in calligraphy and graphic arts because that was the basis he made apple the company it became. >> that is what distinguishes you. some creative sensibility. >> apple is primarily an enterprise in the arts and design before anything else. that's true. i also think it's true we don't have to apologize for the humanities and the arts in that way the truth is, fareed, in every civilization that we know of, that interests us at all, there's an ongoing conversation about books and pictures. when i went out to the google campus a few years ago those guys didn't want to talk about google translate. they wanted to talk about an alice monroe story or "breaking bad" a natural conversation in life, conversation about books and pictures. that's an ongoing conversation. doesn't depend on universities. what universities do, what humanities programs, art history programs do, i think is that they do two things. they take the conversation back into history so that we know that conversation we're having about homeland is also a conversation we can have about george elliott, and they do something even more important i think, fareed, they democratize the conversation. my father's father, my grandfather, was a little grosser, butcher, no knowledge of the arts at all. wonderful man but a simple immigrant. my father became a professor of 18th century english literature. you could go to school and walk into an english department and so when people say well, the humanities are elitist, it's just the opposite. it's when we don't have humanities departments that that conversation about civilization is elitist. when we have them at universities it means anybody can take part. >> wasn't what the president was saying true in this sense, that not everyone should aspire to a kind of four-year liberal arts degree, that there are some people for whom a two-year course in mechanics or some trade like that is going to be a much more productive path because that person's talents or skills might be better suited to that? or is that fundamentally kind of class divide? much of europe works that way, where there's streaming where people are moved into. that's why the german economy has nod had some of the employment problems we've had. >> and canada too. you have a lot of two-year programs right out of college. if we start amputating the life of hands and eyes from the life of the mind we're going to regret it partly for the reason of the steve jobs principle, a lot of real innovation comes out of the arts, but also because finally it's a question of values. why do we want to be prosper sflus it's not just because we want to put things in our pockets and in our stomachs. we want to put things in our head's, children's head, feel they're part of a conversation that extends beyond them and will extend in front of them. the humanities are uniquely good at doing that. we need the humanities because we're human and the crucial thing about being a human being is we know we're at one place in an arc of time and that there's a future in front of us and as past that stretches behind us. >> so why did you become an art history majorer? >> oh, because for all of those reasons. because the prettiest girl i ever seen was studying renaissance art every morning at mcgale university. if i'm sitting near her in the dark i'm going to be able to insinuate myself into her good graces and 30 some years later we are still married. >> always. adam gopnik, thank you so much. up next, why fashion designers around the world should knock off this african church attire. 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[ male announcer ] prilosec otc is the number one doctor recommended frequent heartburn medicine for 8 straight years. one pill each morning. 24 hours. zero heartburn. 72 years ago last week president franklin d. roosevelt signed executive order 9066 authorizing the secretary of war to create military areas in the united states from which anyone could be excluded. although japanese-americans were not specifically mentioned in the order it was clearly meant for them. roughly 120,000 were forced from their homes and exiled to camps in remote areas where they remained surrounded by barbed wire and armed guard for much of the war. it brings me to my question of the week. which u.s. president rescinded president roosevelt's order. a harry truman, b, dwight eisenhower, c, gerald ford, d ronald reagan. this week's book of the week is "the steps across the water" by adam gopnik whom you just heard from. this is a children's book written with style. it's a fantasy set in new york with central park, skyscrapers, zeppelins and the chrysler building and much more. buy it for a young relative. and now for the last look. after the kind of winter we've had here in new york, upgrades on winter coats have been the style of the season. at the city's recent fashion week, one of the must-have items was a fabs plus fur. halfway aerds across the world these south african men are sporting fur of their own during a religious ritual. carrying warrior shields the men are wearing the traditional ceremonial attire of the shemby religion, a monkey tail loin cloth, ostrich feathers on their head, a leopard skin belt and a leopard skin cape and perhaps fashion designers should copy this african custom. you see, for some of the members, the fur is fake. in fact, it's made in china. the international trade of leopard parts is illegal and the skins used in the ceremonial attire usually come from poachers. thanks to a project by the wild cat conservation group, a fake fur material is now being made in china and shipped to south africa. 10% of members are estimated to have made the switch to synthetic fur and thousands of these fabulous faux shoulder capes have been shipped to the region. it's a strange day when african animal skins are manufactured in china and shipped via dhl, but it is certainly the bright side of globalization. the correct answer to our "gps" challenge question is c, while most of the camps holding japanese-americans were emptied by the end of world war ii executive order 9066 was not officially rescinded until 1976 when president ford issued a proclamation declaring that the evacuation had been wrong. in 1988, president reagan signed the civil liberties act which awarded $20,000 to each of the survivors of the camp for their hardship and loss of property. thanks to all of you for being part of my program this week. i will see you next week. hello, everyone. the top of the hour. "reliable sources" will start in one minute. i'm fredricka whitfield live in atlanta with the check of our top stories right now. people in ukraine's captain today are looking at an uncertain future. less than 24 hours ago, a series of huge shifts in the country ended with a passionate speech from opposition leader yulia tymoshenko. she was released from jail earlier just by matter of hours and president viktor yanukovych was voted out of office apparently trying to leave ukraine last night. now no one knows where he is. a restaurant manager is dead after a carbon monoxide leak last night at a legal
pregnancy. and the pop culture lead. if you've laughed at a movie in the last 35 years, well, it's a good chance that harold rramis had something to do with it. he died today at the age of 69. we'll look at his career. >> i collect spores and fungus. good afternoon, everyone. we'll begin with the world lead. he went from leader of ukraine to the most wanted man in the country in the span of a weekend. viktor yanukovych has not been seen since saturday when he was ousted during the midst of violent protests. alleging he's responsible for the mass killings of civilians, scores of protesters were killed last week in clashes with the police. demonstrators angry that yanukovych turned his back on the deal with the european union, choosing closer ties with russia as well. we know that yanukovych tried to charter a plane but was turned away for not having the right paperwork. yesterday, parliament put an interim president in place. russia questions the legitimacy of the new leader. moscow said that the out offer of yanukovych puts the lives of it is embassy staff in danger. the real question is, could russia send troops into the ukraine? ukraine's parliament has the task of trying to keep the country from falling deeper into chaos. with evidence of death in the streets still very fresh from recent days, our senior national correspondent nick paton walsh is there. what is happening there, nick? >> reporter: well, right behind me, as has been for the last two days, still mourning flowers on the ground over the soothe where rubble was once burning during the fighting that happened there. the question, how can the ukraine find the $35 billion it says it needs right now to simply keep the country afloat? they've looked into the coffirs and it's empty. will yanukovych stand trial for the mass murder that he's been accused today of by opposition leaders? he was last seen down in the south and, as you said, tried to leave the country on a private plane. his whereabouts are not quite known. a lot of rumors that he may be at a russian naval base. people are still waiting, jake, to hear what vladimir putin would actually say. we heard from the prime minister saying that the armed rioters took over the court. we don't know what vladimir is thinking. jake? >> and nick, startling scene when protesters stormed the presidential mansion there. tell us about that. >> reporter: well, quite remark. . this is an estate that goes on and on and on. it's on the outside of kiev and it's built by him -- frankly, no one knows where the money came from. certainly not on his $50,000 a year salary. if you were president, why did you need a 1950s bentley, fish tanks, endless signs of extravagant in this place. even a tunnel that went from the mansions, a huge boat on the river where the real activity seemed to be partying with extraordinarily expensive wine. the strangest thing about all of this, the vast amount of money spent on it but the real signs of very human life or activity there. only one real bedroom looked like it was lived in and that may have been for a daughter for one of his acquaintances. extraordinary amounts of questions to be asked but what was all of this for? it didn't seem as though he was getting much enjoyment out of it. jake? >> nick paton walsh, thank you. russia's leaders seem to know whom to blame. the russian foreign ministry issued a statement blaming the west of extremist actions. michael mcfaul is joining us from moscow. today is his last day as ambassador. thank you for squojoining us. you've been there in russia for two years. russia has recalled their ambassador to the ukraine for questions. i want to play for you what susan rice said about the question about what would happen if russia sent in troops to the ukraine to restore order. take a listen. >> that would be a grave mistake. it's not in the interest of the ukraine or of russia or of europe or the united states to see a country split. it's in nobody's interest to see violence return and escalate. >> how likely do you think it is that russia would send troops in, especially considering the fears of the ukrainian unrest spreading across the border? >> i can tell you that things here are very tense and what government officials are saying about what is happening on the ukraine, on the television stations here you see a lot of heated rhetoric because of what they call their special relationship with the ukraine, especially those regions in the east. >> how strongly has it been conveyed to putin and the russian leadership that the u.s. does not want russian soldiers marching into kiev? >> we've been very clear that we don't see more -- greater exacerbation, especially violent conflict as in anybody's interests. we saw the tragedy on the streets of kiev and as somebody who has traveled many times to that fantastic city, it was shocking to me to watch what happened. it obviously did not lead to any good political result for anyone on either side so we're working hard to try and get in place a peaceful resolution to the political crisis there right now. >> ukraine is, as you know, a divided country with the east speaking russian, feeling heritage with russia. russia has already granted thousands of passports to residents from that area. does it benefit putin in any way if there ended up being some sort of war before the east and west? >> i can't imagine anybody's thinking of this as a russian national interest. because let's be clear, if this country is divided or moves down that path, you will have political violence in europe and, second, you'll have an economic total meltdown. russian business people have a lost investments in the ukraine. those will be hurt by political turmoil in the ukraine. >> your boss, president obama, had an interesting thing to say about the u.s./russian relationship when he spoke last week about the events in ukraine and his relationship with putin. take a listen. >> our approach as the united states is not to see these as some cold war chess board in which we're in competition with russia. our goal is to make sure that the people of the ukraine are able to make decisions for themselves about their future. >> this has been a theme of the obama administration's conversations with and about russia. the idea that there are still too many people in russia. >> from the very first meeting, i remember it well. >> yeah. >> sorry to interrupt you. the very first time he said that, april 2009 when he met with president medvedev. >> that imagery, kind of 18th century balance of politics where if it's two points for america, it's minus two for russia just doesn't work in the 21st century. it's an argument that we have proposed to the russians from the very beginning and i think if you look at the past five years on some issues, we've achieved what we'd like to call win/win outcomes. on others, we've had stalemates. but with respect to the ukraine, it doesn't make any sense whatsoever. >> when you were at the white house as a national security council as somebody who focused on russia and i was a white house reporter, i remember talking to you, being briefed by you, you discussing ways that the relationship was making real progress, especially when medvedev was calling the shots to the degree that he was. but now you look at syria, the human rights issues, especially when it comes to gays and rights and when you look at edward snowden, do you think the u.s. is leading in the wrong direction? >> i leave this job more optimistic than i did two years ago. with respect to our relationship, it's also complicated because some of the things that we began to operate with, president medvedev and prime minister putin -- i would remind you, he was always part of this government. several years ago, that continues. and on things that are most important to us, iran, north korea, afghanistan, reducing nuclear weapons in the world, increasing trade and investment, that cooperation continues. and at the same time, your list is a correct one. we have places where we disagree. i think that's just the nature of the relationship. >> are you concerned about the crackdown on human rights and gays and lesbians in russia? >> yes, i'm concerned. but i did get concerned just two weeks before the olympics. it's been a concern of our administration from the very beginning. as ambassador here, i have lots of contact with the entire human rights community, civil society, including the lgbt community, which we are very supportive of their efforts here and we all need to remain vigilant. by the way, they were extremely pleased with our delegations. i saw them right before i went to the opening of the olympics and the outpour of support for the two delegations that we sent were quite pro found. the symbolism of that meant a lot to the community here. >> do you know where edward snowden is? have you reached out to him at all? >> i do not know where he is. we have tried through i intermediaries to reach out to him, including people i know personally, and we have not been successful. >> ambassador mcfaul, i know you've spent a lot of time away from your family recently. i know you're looking forward to being back at stanford with your wife and children. so good luck with that. being gay in uganda, a bill has been signed into law to make some homosexual acts punishable by life in prison. originally it included a death penalty clause. in an exclusive interview with cnn, the president of uganda said it's not a human right and said it was not natural. when asked if he liked gays, his answer was, sadly, not surprising. >> do you personally not like homosexuals? >> of course, they are disgusting. >> this took uganda a step backward by signing into law legislation criminalizing homosexuality sfoo comihomo walt. coming up on "the lead," pregnant woman who take this drug just once are more likely to have a child with ad/hd. focus on 2016. now you can create your own perfect plate of pasta at olive garden, with our new cucina mia menu, for just $9.99. choose the homemade sauce that tempts you the most. like our addictively creamy garlic asiago, devilishly spicy diavolo or garden-fresh primavera with roasted vegetables. all made from scratch and made to order. served with your choice of our new artisinal pastas including gluten free. new cucina mia is all about flavor, all about you, and all just $9.99. at olive garden, we're all family here. in fact, they depend on a unique set of nutrients. [ male announcer ] that's why there's ocuvite to help protect your eye health. as you age, your eyes can lose vital nutrients. ocuvite helps replenish key eye nutrients. ocuvite is a vitamin made just for your eyes from the eye care experts at bausch + lomb. ocuvite has a unique formula that's just not found in any leading multivitamin. your eyes are unique, so help protect your eye health with ocuvite. i'm jake tapper. the national lead now. it's been long considered one of the few over-the-counter drugs to take during pregnancy but a new study breaking this hour is raising questions about acetaminophen, the main ingredients in tylenol and other medications because researchers say it may put the children of expectant mothers at risk for attention hyperactivity disorder, or ad/hd. even researchers from the study say there's not enough evidence to stop recommending the drug to pregnant women. elizabeth cohen has more. >> reporter: it's supposed to be the safe option. acetaminophen, most widely known as tylenol, is prescribed to pregnant women in pain. but a new study calls this long-standing practice into question. in the study, women using it were more likely to have children who went on to have ad/hd. women who took the drug throughout half or more of their pregnancy were almost as twice as likely to have a child with severe ad/hd. >> it's something to avoid if you can. we have to be extremely careful what we expose fetuses to. >> reporter: acetaminophen may cause damage by disrupting hormones critical to fetal brain development and alternatives to medications, like massages and baths. >> you certainly should not just take a pain medication because you have a slight headache. >> reporter: in a statement, johnson & johnson tells c independent n tylenol has one of the most favorable safety profiles among over-the-counter pain relievers. bott bottom line, most women who were involved in the study had children that did not go on to have ad/hd. in the meantime, pregnant women should not replace acetaminophen with other pain relievers and they should talk to their doctors. >> joining me for me is dr. lisa masterson. good to see you. if you were talking to one of your pregnant patients, how would you tell her to interpret the result of this study? >> to talk to her o.b. i know this study is going to put a lot of fear into a lot of pregnant women because they have to be so careful not only about what they eat, what kind of medication they take, how much and when, what trimester. women should talk to their doctor because the other thing is fevers. fevers can actually cause problems in the fetus as well. it depends on the reason that you're taking acetaminophen. right now the rules about when you should take it have not changed at all. we still feel it's a pretty safe medication to take in pregnancy because you cannot take ibuprofen. you have to talk to your dock are to. any time you take on a new medication so that we know what it is for, why you take it, right now this is just as the study said, a link. it doesn't mean that it causes ad/hd in a baby. >> that's right. we need to emphasize that. no causation. just a link. this was a large study, though, we should say. it included more than 60,000 children and mothers and yet researchers say that there's still not enough evidence to tell women not to take the painkiller. so what would it take to change their position? >> more studies. there's a lot more studies that need -- the great thing is, we're being vigilant about the medications that we're still women to take. and we're still studying these things and when new ideas come up, like could this possibly cause problems in their development? we look at it even though it's the most common drug that we have women taking right now. we feel it's very safe. it still needs to be watched. we need to see if there's a genetic predisposition. we still need to ask questions and we need more and more studies to look at the cause and effect and the link surrounding this, how much acetaminophen, is it the first trimester, second trimester. and women should minimize how many drugs they take or if they take drugs. they should always, always consult their o.b.s if they are starting something new. >> that's what i wanted to ask you. should this study raise concerns for pregnant women who take other over-the-counter medications that we all just believe to be safe? >> absolutely it should raise concerns because every woman is different. her genetic predisposition, when she takes it, what trimester, what she's taking it for. that may be adding to it. again, if she's taking it for a fever, if the infection is causing the problem, fever that is causing the problem, medication that she's taking, all of these things need to be looked at and it's not black and white. you know, right now we have a link. we need more studies. right now most o.b.s still safe if you take it in small quantities. >> they should always consult their physicians. just something else to think about before they take it. dr. lisa masterson, thank you so much. when we come back, john mccain is speaking out against republicans. why he's urging those to veto a controversial bill. predibut, manufacturings a prettin the united states do. means advanced technology. we learned that technology allows us to be craft oriented. no one's losing their job. there's no beer robot that has suddenly chased them out. the technology is actually creating new jobs. siemens designed and built the right tools and resources to get the job done. starts with freshly-made pasta, and 100% real cheddar cheese. but what makes stouffer's mac n' cheese best of all. that moment you enjoy it at home. stouffer's. made with care for you or your family. how much money do you think you'll need when you retire? 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[ corrine ] super poligrip is part of my life now. welcome back to "the lead." time now for the politics lead. if you believe the democrats are playing the part of the royalists thinking a smooth succession. hillary clinton is being trumped by some in her party for the next line in throne. the secretary of state is enjoying what many consider an inevitability but it's not the first time that hillary clinton is a shoe-in. and comparing the readiness for hillary movement to a cult. >> he's a biden supporter. there's plenty of biden supporters, surprisingly. he doesn't get the ready for hillary and not quite sure what this group is supposed to be doing. they are just drumming up to get her in place for others but, yeah, he called it a cult and doesn't get the point. >> so you called james clyburn as, quote, i love hillary clinton. she's made a tremendous contribution to the political order in this country. i have three daughters and two of my grandchildren are girls. so i am very partial to women who run for office. >> clyburn, the highest ranking democrat, prominent african-american leader, has a new memoir out where he recalls bill clinton calling him after the south carolina primary in 2008, barack obama ran by 28 points, largely on the backs of african-american voters. bill clinton said, if if you bastards want to fight, we're going to give it to you. if you accuse clyburn of the neutrality in that primary and say you've been working for obama. relations were frosty. clyburn says in the book he did end up voting for obama. but as i quote him in the piece, he, too, is critical of running for hillary. this is a group trying to drum up energy for 2016 when they should be focusing on the midterms in 2014. >> let's talk about that. i want to bring in white house correspondent for yahoo! news. there is, matea, criticisms focusing too much on hillary and not much on the midterms, which are important. >> sure. and i think we saw that today with priority's usa which is a democratic super pac in 2012 making it clear they are encouraging donors to give to the super pacs and they are not even going to begin actively fundraising for 2016 until after the midterm elections. really trying to answer some of those concerns in the party that they are going to cannibalize the group and when you have americans for prosperity, there's a real anxiety among democrats that are not going to have the money to compete in this cycle. >> there's a big fear and back in 2007, a voter told him he was voting for obama. >> he looked at me and goes, we had -- i get the point. it's something that i'd have to -- if i was to run, i'd have to overcome that. and so will hillary, by the way. >> john king is reporting that fund-raisers have gotten phone calls from jeb bush between now and 2016 a very serious look. it puts george bush jeb bush in candidacy. >> i think everybody is getting a second, third, and fourth look. we're getting some reporting about bobby jindal of louisiana. jeb bush has been running around saying we have to do immigration reform, climate change is a real problem, doesn't necessarily sound like someone who is completely in touch with the party's activist base and that could be a bigger problem for him. >> i think that's absolutely the case for him. last time i ran for office was 2002. the republican party looked different. >> does not look like iowa. >> jeb bush is a real affable guy but he cares about governoring a and policy. he seems hot and cold and not necessarily in tune just tonally with the base of the republican party. >> and the fact that he even formulated that challenge of the clinton/bush and bush/clinton dynamic, why would he do it again? why are we going to put the country through the clinton/bush candidacy again. >> it seems that he's leaning in more than he has. he usually gives the standard, wait and figure that out later but he seemed to be engaging with it a little more. i think he's talking to don are nos, doing due diligence. had he a father and brother who ran for president. he knows how hard it is to run for president. he wants to feel it out at this point. >> let's look at 2014 because i have to say, i've been following all of the senate races and one of the most interesting things i've seen in the last two days has to do with the senate race. the republican primary in kansas. milton wolf is a tea party republican. he's challenging senator pat roberts. he admitted that he made insurance sensitive comments after posting some gruesome x-ray images of gunshot victims on his facebook page, including someone decapitated by gunfire. one x-ray resembled a wounded alien in a "terminator" movie. wolf was asked about this. >> do you still post images of dead people on the internet? >> that is not an image of a dead person. >> what is it? what is this? >> these are x-rays. >> x-rays of dead people. do you still post images that reflect anything like this on the internet? >> you know, it's so easy to try to -- to try to put some kind of blame on me, on anybody and anything that you like to do. i'm telling you right now, these are real consequences that you see of real activities. >> in a statement, wolf now says, quote, several years ago i made some comments about these images that were insensitive to the seriousness of what the images revealed. i removed those images several years ago. matea, is there any right answer? i think it's fair to say that that was -- first of all, it's just great, interesting reporting. he had like a columbo quality there. >> i think what it shows, clearly, is that he was not prepared for this kind of question or even perhaps more questions that might come in and if you're participating in that kind of behavior, don't anticipate that that's going to be a question, that in itself is striking. it's set off the establishment wing and the conservative groups that are being backing wolf and saying, look, we don't have a murdoch situation where we lose a seat because someone is not electionable in the general election. >> in terms of the candidate, it was like he was rummaging around in a bag of bad answers. uh, doctoring is important. roberts is being accused of being too willing to compromise. he doesn't have a permanent residence in the state. this shows many he that the establishment that the tea party is running against are doing their homework and they want to pick off these guys with opposition research as early as possible. they don't want to have another akin or a situation that they had in indiana. >> and it's amazing that he consented to do this interview. >> thank you so much. appreciate it. coming up, a billionaire fugitive camped out at a cheap beachside condo. why the u.s. wanted him just as much as the country in which he was hiding. plus, he knew how to make us laugh with that one great line or the character you'll never forget. we'll look back at the hail hilarious career of harold. from fashion that flies off the shelves. and you...rent from national. because only national lets you choose any car in the aisle... and go. and only national is ranked highest in car rental customer satisfaction by j.d. power. 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(vo) so do we, business pro. so do we. go national. go like a pro. welcome back to "the lead." thank you for the legwork, mexico. we'll take it from here. the u.s. is seeking extradition of the biggest druglord, joaquin guzman came to an end. the u.s. drug enforcement agency finally caught him in the pacific resort town of mazatlan. el chapo, which means shorty in spanish, was with the powerful cartel in the world with revenues of $3 billion. guzman is described to be the main antagonist in the drug crimes that includes 80,000 deaths. he slipped away through a secret door underneath a bathtub to a network of tunnels connected to his six other homes. he was not so lucky on saturday. a number of recent arrests apparently lead to treasure troves which allowed u.s. agencies to take out and monitor a number of wire taps. in the end, it was just one of those wire taps that brought men to el chapo's room. during his time allegedly running the cartel, he's believed to have trafficked more than 100,000 tons, tons of cocaine into the u.s. he's been indicted in new york, illinois, texas, california, hence the extradition requests. and there is at least one more reason that u.s. authorities would like to have him in america rather than mexican hands. el chapo pulled a hugh dean knee in 2001 escaping in a laundry cart. he remained free until saturday. a writer for "the new yorker," he spent months researching and writing about el chapo. are you surprised authorities finally got him? >> i was surprised. he essentially walked out of prison because he's been able to rely on corruption. a big part of his lore is that he's an uncatchable guy. there are hundreds of songs about him. he ran a multinational drug conglomerate but managed to be two steps ahead of the authorities. >> remind us of how dangerous this man is. >> he's responsible for as much as 30, 40, 50% of the illegal narcotics have that come across the border in the united states. in order to survive in a criminal organize sgraation lik, you need to show that you're the baddest organization out there. he's responsible for tens and thousands of deaths in mexico. and, you know, in many instances, these were pretty grisly deaths, killed in a public way in order to strike fear in the communities that he operated. >> do you think this is going to put a dent in mexico's drug trade, the amount of illegal flow of drugs into the u.s.? >> i don't. i think this is an enormously symbolic effort. it's not good to have guys out there like chapo guzman but in terms of the apparatus of drug smuggling, these guys have been in business for 25, 30 years. the roots that they are using are in place and they have probably thought through, as you would in any other multibillion business, a succession plan and what happens if the top guy gets pinched. >> he's a mexican national. do you think mexico will consent to the u.s.' extradition requests and, if not, can the u.s. trust mexico to actually put him away forever? >> i think this is going to be a big, tense political issue between the two countries in the coming weeks. on the one hand, the mexicans have a point, which is essentially that the overwhelming majority of the guy's victims are in mexico. they also captured him in mexico. on the other hand, you can see people in washington saying with some understandable concern, guys, he was in your maximum security prison last time and managed to walk right out. this is a guy who has paid hundreds and millions of dollars of bribes to people at all levels of the mexican government. there may be fears that he may not face justice if he stands trial in mexico. >> the new president of mexico has not allowed officials the broad access to mexico that his predecessors did. do you think this will exacerbate the tensions or could it potentially bring people together? >> it was surprising because it looked like the u.s. worked closely with mexico on this. there was concern that when he came into office he would not want the u.s. so hand in glove but they appear to have worked so closely together on this. that could be a good sign for u.s./mexican relations. i think it's going to be a tough issue. you could see after this moment that they worked fairly closely together you could actually see us split apart over this question of whether el chappo guzman could face justice. >> he spent six months working on the story about "el chappo" and we're going to post that at cnn.com/thelead. thank you so much. appreciate it. look who is here. wolf blitzer with a preview of the situation room. i know you covered in your 1:00 hour on the tv show called "wolf," the potential defense cuts that are going to happen. defense secretary chuck hagel pushing for them. who is your guests today? >> up preemed allied commander, wesley clark, retired u.s. general. we had another retired nato supreme allied commander. i like those supreme allied commanders. so what is going on? they are going to cut a bunch of troops, eliminate some pretty sophisticated weapons systems. there's a whole new thought going on that chuck hagel will announce and we'll take a closer look at what is going on with the d.o.d. >> wolf blitzer -- i'm trying to give you a new title. you're resisting it. you recognize him from ghost busters and "stripes" but some of his best work happened behind the camera. the amazing career of ak are ct writer, and director harold ramis. that's coming up next. wow, my headache is gone. excedrin really does work fast. not gonna happen. excedrin ends headaches fast. in fact for some, relief starts in just 15 minutes. excedrin. headache. gone. gone. an entirely new menu created with your busy schedule in mind. pronto lunch starting at $6.99. handmade italian sandwiches, flatbreads, and our signature soup and salad. starting at $6.99. and all served "pronto!" at olive garden. 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[ thump ] to speak with an insurance expert and ask about all the personalized savings available for when you get married, move into a new house, or add a car to your policy. personalized coverage and savings. all the things humans need to make our world a little less imperfect. call... and ask about all the ways you could save. liberty mutual insurance. responsibility. what's your policy? ♪ welcome back to "the lead," the pop culture lead now. if you have laughed at the movies at any time in the last 35 or so years, the odds are that harold ramis had something to do with it. he died after an extraordinary career with a laudable life. he got his start on second city tv. >> hi, whitey. >> hi, beaver. >> an offshoot of the comedy famous for launching careers and for ramis it did. he co-wrote "animal house" and caddy shack. he wrote and starred in "stripes". >> when i was a kid, my father said never hit anyone in anger unless you're absolutely sure you can get away with it. >> and "ghostbusters." ra ramis directed "national la lampoon" and co-wrote and directed "groundhog day," perhaps his finest and most meaningful film. >> if you only had one day to live, what would you do with it? >> ramis' own life was a continuous repeat of humor and characters that solidified this place as one of the most successful comedic filmmakers. in an interview with the american film institute, he ex pr explained some of the more difficult decisions he made. >> it's something you want to give the audience. and you want to tell your kids, you want to paint a picture of the world as better than it really is just so we can live with some hope. >> ramis brought that hope to audiences for more than 40 years. he died early this morning in chicago surrounded by family from complications of a rare disease that affected his blood vessels. while he was known for being a clever and successful filmmaker, one of the most remarkable things about him those close to him say may have been how grounded and how kind he was, a real mech to the end of his day. harold ramis was 69 years old. i now turn you over to wolf blitzer in the situation room. stunning new details on the most wanted druglord after avoided justice for years in mexico, could the kingpin known as "el chappo" end up in a united states court? and russian's ousted leader is missing. and there are some now new signs that jeb bush is seriously considering a white house run. so why is he now warning fellow republicans to, quote, chill out? i'm wolf blitzer. you're in "the situation room."
a tense situation will spin out of control after this confrontation in crimea. the world is watching two presidents locked in a war of words. who will blink first? >> translator: if i take the decision to use military force, it will be completely legitimate and correspond to the norms, international law. >> i know president putin seems to have a different set of lawyers making a different set of interpretations, but i don't think that's fooling anybody. >> i'll talk to senator john mccain. he says president obama doesn't understand putin. chris murphy says republicans are playing politics. also, from the miracle on ice to rocky and bull winkle, why do we love to hate russia? is it deserved? oscar pistorius's defense hammers a witness. she cries sayinging it was awful to hear the shots. what we know about the night of the killing. the crisis in ukraine. vladimir putin will do next. joining me now is robert legvald and general mark kimmet and fareed zakaria. fareed, we spoke last night and had a fascinating debate about the state of play. i want to play you a clip. this is president clinton talking to me at the cgi last september about his own dealings with vladimir putin because it seems to me that trust in putin right now is absolutely key. listen to this. >> mr. putin has got -- he's very smart. >> you know him better than most people. >> yeah, i do. >> what was he like behind closed doors away from sort of the public utterances? >> smart and remarkably -- we had a really good, blunt relationship. >> how blunt? >> brutally blunt. >> did putin ever renege on a personal agreement made to you? >> no, he did not. >> behind closed doors he could be trusted. >> he kept his word in all the deals we made. >> i found that fascinating insight into that relationship and into the character of putin. and i remember bill clinton going on to say that what you had to be weary of with putin was making any public pronouncements as the american president or any world leader which exposed to him to any sense of ridicule and embarrassment losing faith with his own people. taking it to the current situation, what should we make about the reality of putin and how you should deal with him? >> well, he is i think as bill clinton said a tough guy. i've had a few chances to meet with him in small groups, very small groups, and he's -- what comes across is very intelligent, very tough and a deep sense of russian nationalism. a deep sense of the greatness of russia. if you will, russian exceptionalism. so i think that you're dealing with somebody with whom you cannot make appeals to international laws or norms. these things are not as important. it is brutal understanding of russia's interests and i think that the off ramp that we might find, it lies in what putin said in the press conference. the most important thing he said in the long rambling press conference was that he does not intend to annex crimea. he was asked the final question was, is crimea going to become part of russia? he said, no. we want to leave it up to the people of crimea to determine their future so it suggests he's thinking of a referendum. the ukrainian may have ideas. the constitution allows for a referendum the whole country and all ukrainians would have to decide whether crimea is either independent or part of russia or autonomous within ukraine and then you see the possibility of some kind of political solution. if putin says and really forsways any notion of annex xags by force then you can have a serious conversation about the political future because it isi. it was given to ukraine in 1954 in a kind of weird gift that was made. it is 60% russian. from all accounts, the majority would rather be in russia or at least not particularly happen we with ukraine. so all those things can be discussed but i think that the key is as you put it. the trust that there's a serious negotiation and nobody uses force to create facts on the ground that can't be changed. >> okay. let me turn to professor because, you know, if you talk to president clinton like i did, and i pushed him quite hard on this there's no doubt when it was closed doors discussion with putin, he completely trusted him. that putin never reneged on his word, always delivered on what he told bill clinton personally he would do. should president obama be getting in the same room with vladimir putin right now and thrashing out some kind of solution to this bearing in mind bill clinton's words? >> well, i think it's very important that -- that the west, the eu and president obama engage putin. this is not a time to cut off contact. but it is a different environment fundamentally from any other kind of dealing with putin. one has to understand where he is right now. his policy initiatives have been very rash. you don't do what he does unless you think the stakes are very high and in his view i think he believes the political forces out of this recent political crisis has now led yukraine to position where russia is losing it to the eu and nato and he believes that's happened in part if not engineered by the u.s. and the eu and others then strongly supported by it and come to have an exceedingly negative view of the administration, of the americans and it will be very hard to do any kind of a deal with him where you get back to the clinton proposition to trust him on a deal. we're in a different world with putin right now. >> okay. but let me ask you this. madeline albright called him delusional. is he completely delusional in reading the country with a country on the doorstep, right on the border? is he delusional or is he right to be quite paranoid about the situation and in his own way he believes acting in the best entrust of his country? >> i think he thinks it's that, that's the case. he certainly believes that ukraine is utterly critical to russia. its aspirations, not merely to russian security and a broad sense or political identity or self satisfaction but to projects like this economic union, political union he's attempting to form. a whole host of other things. but again, as i've said, i think the real question is whether these rash actions which he's taken given the high stakes are not leading him into some very deep and dangerous water. what fareed said a moment i would read differently. that is, the risk is -- he has said i'm not going to annex crimea. that's not my aspiration. but the next sentence was, i will respect the freedom of crimean people to make their own decisions. and as fareed pointed out if a referendum is held current law scheduled for march 30th and possibly pushed up likely to be carried in favor of independence. then what's he going to do? my guess is he's going to embrace it and if he does it won't simply be another -- it is likely to lead to russia's decision to incorporate crimea into russia. and then what do the ukrainians do in this situation? >> okay. let me play a clip. this is vladimir putin talking about the potential use of military force. >> translator: if i take the decision to use military force, it will be completely legitimate and correspond to the norms, international law, because we have request of the legitimate president and also correspond to our duties and correspond to our interests in protecting the people who are close to us, historically. >> general mark kimmet, from a military point of view, put season min taning he hasn't sent troops in in any kind of combat manner and protecting as he puts it people close to us historically. is he right? >> well, what he is doing is protecting the strategic interest which is the warm water part of simferopol. this is not unique for either putin or russia. there's been an outside intervention every decade since the end of the world war ii. i mean, the fact is they went into afghanistan in the '70s. they went in to georgia in the 2000s. hungary in the '50s. czechoslovakia in the '60s. i don't see that this is somehow suey generous to putin alone. the fact is any time the russians or the soviets or for that matter, they take military action into the countries to restore stability and restore that buffer zone around that country which they have wanted to maintain for years and years. >> yeah. and on that point, is he not right to at least raise a flag and say, okay, america, you may be hostile to what i'm doing but wouldn't you basically do exactly the same thing if you faced exactly the same scenario on your border? general kimmet? >> i deplore what he's done but not go too far on that suggestion. we did the exact same thing in panama in 1989. we had a strategic interest, that of the panama canal. america took swift, decisive action to maintain its strategic interest in the panama canal zone and the american people inside. i don't see much of a difference of what happened there and what happened here in ukraine. >> okay. fareed zakaria, i can see you shaking your head. why do you dispute a comparison in the way general kim december met outlined? >> all nations have interests and interests outside their borders, great powers have interests. but the fundamental putin is facing we did not at panama is the people of ukraine by and large don't want to be dominated by russia. that's what set the dynamic going and why bob legvald is correct saying this is a nightmare or putin trying to keep up with the pace of events but the real movers, the real actors in this story are not washington and obama who are strict putin or not putin who's done a power play. this is the way we describe it or the heroes of the story are the ukrainian people who took to the streets, overturned a government they thought was a vassell of rush why and trying to make a modern, liberal, democratic future for them and putin is trying to arrest that course of history. very different from going in temporarily to secure the panama canal or get rid of a, you know, a bad guy like noriega. it's a thriving democracy. look at anything rnicaragua. i hope the lesson is holding on to pieces of land and warm water ports and all, that's not how you make a great nation. the way you make a great nation is raise the standards of the living of your people. putin is presiding in russia that's ruining the lives of the people but he's got crimea. >> i would also argue that to suggest that the people east of the denepra river, primarily russian speaking and russian affiliated somehow see what's happening in kiev as where they want to be going or that somehow russian pass ra trooping in kiev is a mace statement of fact. the fact is the crimean in general lean far more towards russia than they do right now to the west. >> it's a little bit of an old-fashioned thinking if i quickly point out. even in crimea, only 60% of the population is russian. 15% are muslims. i don't think they're looking at the prospect of russian domination with any great joy. >> no. but 60% of the people are. >> final word to professor legvald an enthis question, really, a crucial one. will putin back down? >> i think he's not going to back down from the position he's currently established. the real question is what's his game? what's he up to? not a bandit that's seized an opportunity in order to grab a piece of another country. at a minimum, i think he's trying to create the strongest possible hand he has to influence the future course of ukraine. i think he knows that the elections may 25th in ukraine to decide the next government, if they're entirely controlled by the elements from the west which are very pro west ready to destroy the commitment to neutral tell oi ukraine's part established in 2010, if they control the situation, ukraine is lost. he want it is strongest possible hand at a minimum to shape the outcome of ukrainian politics. as a maximum if he's given up that portion of ukraine, then is the game to begin the process of dismembering ukraine so that the part that retains some loyalty toward russia provides a kind of if you will security buffer or safety zone? the real problem is after crimea, even if the worst happens in crimea. there's more down the road. >> okay. professor, thank you very much. fareed zakaria, thank you. general kimmet, thank you. when we come back, john mccain tells me why he says this president doesn't understand putin. chris murphy tells me why he thinks the gop is playing politics. i reckon a storm's a brewin'. reckon so. reckon you gotta hotel? 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i use my citi thankyou card to get two times the points at the coffee shop. which will help me get to miami...and they'll be stuck at the cube farm. the citi thankyou preferred card. now earn two times the points on dining out with no annual fee. go to citi.com/thankyoucards. this president does not understand vladimir putin. he does not understand his am bigs. he does not understand that vladimir putin is an old kgb colonel bent on restoration of the soviet of the russian empire. >> fiery john mccain on the senate floor today with strong words of president obama and vladimir putin. joining me now is senator john mccain. welcome to you, senator. what is your view of where the crisis currently is? >> well, i think it's a situation where the crimea is clearly in russian hands and as i predicted that would probably be the case. the question now is what about eastern ukraine as to how serious the problem will be there with quote spontaneous demonstrations and requirements that vladimir putin protect the russian-speaking people there? i'm not sure. i think it depends on what vladimir putin thinks our response will be. >> i want to play two clips, one is from putin today and followed by another one from president obama. listen to this. >> translator: no sh i'm worried because we are not going to go to war with ukraine but ukraine has the army. i want you to understand clearly. if we do this, it will only be to protect local people. >> i don't think that's fooling anybody. i think everybody recognizes that although russia has legitimate interests in what happens in the neighboring state, that does not give it the right to use force as a means of exerting influence inside of that state. >> people criticizing president obama here, senator, but what is the exact criticism? what is he really expected to do? no one expects him to take military action presumably so what should he be doing? >> it's not what he's doing now and what he should do now. the obvious is now and what he's done in the past. it's the tell vladimir that i will -- when i'm re-elected i'll be more flexible as he said to medvedev. when he ridiculed mitt romney in 2012 and said the cold war's been over for 20 years. the accommodation and belief that somehow vladimir putin was anything but what he is. and this incredible weakness which has led to the arrogance and movement that vladimir putin's made into the ukraine. right now, we are faced with a situation where there's no military option. but there are a lot of other things we can do besides just cancel the preparatory meeting of the g-8 and hopefully we'll do those things but it's what he's done in the past. the chickens have come home to roost, piers. >> well, let me play a clip of senator chris murphy responding to republican criticism of the president. >> i've listened to some of my good friends on the republican side try to score political points in connection with the russian move on crimea. trying to paint this somehow as obama's fault. this is a ridiculous contention. putin marched into georgia in 2008. under a republican president. who many of my republican colleagues considered to be strong on foreign policy. and now he's doing it with the democrat in the office. >> it's a good point he's making? >> well, it is for some. i've -- i strongly resisted, i strongly said that we ought to respond to it an i was ridiculed by the same, frankly, left-wing liberal democrats. the obama-philes. when i said we were all georg n georgians that was a subject of great laughter. the fact is that that was a serious situation. we did take some action but the fact is today that we are now seeing major nation deprived of a significant part of it and unrest there and i warned about it. i warned about it in 2000. i warned about it in 2008. and i continued to warn about it and predict what's happening now. it's not because i'm brilliant. it's because i know vladimir putin. and this president has no idea as to the nature of vladimir putin or he never would have said to medvedev, the puppet, tell vladimir i will be more flexible when i am re-elected. there's a lot of things we can do. there's still world's greatest nation but we -- we got to know who we're dealing with. the question was asked about the ukrainian army. vladimir putin says take a look at the post-soviet states. there are many uniforms there that are similar. you can go to a store and buy any kind of uniform. question, but were they russian soldiers or not? vladimir putin, those were local self-defense units. >> what about his more general point? i'll play what putin said here about what he believes to be the hypocrisy of the u.s. position. >> translator: when i say, do you think that everything you do is legitimate? they said, say, yes. so i have to remind them about actions of the u.s. in afghanistan, iraq and libya where they were acting without any u.n. sanctions. >> i mean, again, whether you support putin's position or not, doesn't he have a point? >> of course not. he's using moral equivalence which, by the way, already people on the left, some of the -- again, obama-philes that are saying, look, we went to libya to prevent, in fact, we kept the gadhafi from the gates of benghazi where 100,000 people were going to be slaughtered and libyan independence. the same way we went to afghanistan because that's where the attacks of 9/11 came from. maybe we shouldn't have gone to iraq but the best information we had at the time they had weapons of mass destruction. none of those was an expansion of the united states empire. this is clearly a power grab. this is part of vladimir putin's desire for the near abroad. he said the greatest catastrophe of the 20th century was the break-up of the soviet union. we have a president that totally misread this guy and as "the washington post" that renowned conservative periodical, he lives in a dream world and now the whole thing has come crashing down and i can assure you that putin paid attention when the president of the united states said he was going to attack syria over chemical weapons because they crossed the red line and didn't. and i tell you that reverberates around the world and you will i predict to you, you will see china get much more aggressive in the south china sea. >> senator mccain, good to talk to you as always. thank you. >> thank you. i want to turn to democrat chris murphy. we heard him on the senate floor today and one of john mccain's on the foreign relations committee. thank you, senator. you didn't get a chance to respond john mccain earlier on the senate floor but you can now. over to you. >> well, listen. this idea that invasion of ukraine is obama's fault is ridiculous. as i said on the floor, this is putin's ambition. i agree with senator mccain to re-establish the control over the near abroad and pursued that policy under republicans and democrats. invaded georgia under president bush and frankly president bush didn't do too much about it, certainly didn't consider the kind of economic sanctions that president obama is considering today. and this idea that obama is somehow weak in the world, simply because he talks to our adversaries is ridiculous, as well. the fact is we have a lot to work on with russia and so we have talked to them about afghanistan, counterterrorism measures, syria, missile defense. that doesn't make him weak. that doesn't mean that obama doesn't understand who putin is. the fact is that putin's ambitions stand solid regardless of whether there's democrats or republicans in the white house and what this masks is the fact that john and i agree on what we should do from here and instead of spending the time blaming folks for the situation we're in, we should be holding hands trying to get ukraine and get the international community out of this mess. >> one of the in my view more outlandish claims by some republicans is that obama is weak simply because he didn't go and bomb syria when he had the chance and emboldened putin to take the action he is doing now. i think that's pretty ridiculous. what is your reaction to that? >> i mean, we are still cleaning up the mess of iraq decade and a half later. and so, the notion that the only way that you can portray strength in the world is by invading and bombing other countries is ridiculous. the war in iraq and frankly the mismanagement of the war in afghanistan has cost this country dearly in terms of treasure, reputation an lives. i'm glad that we didn't militarily intervene in sir why and my constituents understanding there's a different power to be exercised around the globe, one that actually comes with economic diplomacy which is what we're going to do to try to move russia back off the precipice of crisis in ukraine, enact crippling sanctions on the russian government and economy and rethink the approach here and the work that the united states should be doing rather than perceiving strength only to be a function of how many different countries you can invade in a period of time or in an administration. >> people are talking a lot about the word deescalation and saying 24 to 48 hours are crucial. do you think that anything can be achieved significant in that time scale? >> i think there's a good chance that putin is making this up as we go along. i think it's always been his broad mission to try to re-establish control of the former republics but only two weeks ago he had a president there with, president yanukovych under his thumb and when the people threw off that yolk of leadership that he was faced with his only option at this point which was to march troops in so i'm not sure that we're going to see anything in the next 24 to 48 hours to dramatically change the situation. i think it takes the united states and europe making putin believe that we're serious about bringing down his economy if he doesn't change his mind. right now, the europeans are not where we need them to be. it may take a few days or a week to tell putin get the troops out of there or accept international monitorying or we're going to exact sanctions on your people you will come to regret. >> senator murphy, thank you very much, indeed, for joining me. >> thank you, piers. mother russia, fall of the soviet union, with vladimir putin on the move in ukraine srks the cold war genuinely heating up? 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yes! >> "miracle" and the victory over the soviets at the 1980 olympics. americans never stopped loving to hate the russians. two guests join me. welcome to both of you. bill richardson what is it about the damn rusties that gets the americans worked up all the time? >> it is the cold war days as crew shef, founding on the u.n. table, it's the cuban missile crisis, but what you're seeing i think right now is after the debacle of the end of the soviet union is putin is saying we're back. we're going to try to restore our strength. we're going to not be humiliated any longer by nato expansion, by countries like ukraine abandoning us, going to the west, by the missile system that was going to be put up in poland which i think now has to be re-established. but i think it's just very much a part of an american culture. the ruskies being the traditional enemy in the cold war period when it's a bipolar world. it's an interdependent world and so putin will get punishment from europe. he's going to get punishment from nato, from the united states and also i think from his surrounding republics. he's going to lose by this incursion in ukraine, he's going to lose a lot of strength in poland and moldova and countries he wants to keep under his orbit. >> okay. matthew, i mean, i think back in, say, my country, back in england, there isn't quite the level of visceral hatred or distrust to putin and russia and probably the same of many countries in europe, actually. has america got to realign the cold war feelings toward anything russian? is it a pragmatic way to deal with the current situation? >> honestly, piers, i don't think this is about the cold war. i think it's about much more recent history and indeed geopolitical roles and values today. if you think about the 1990s, for russians, that was a story of suffering. that was a story of being on their knees, of watching as a small handful of individuals enriched themselves in the transition to capitalism really to crony capitalism, to wild west capitalism and their feeling was that americans were doing a victory lap, that we were just indifferent to their suffering, we were expanding nay to all around them and encircling them and taking advantage of them and their feeling today is, look, the democracy such as it is flawed and all is only just two decades old. who are we to lecture them about issues like human rights and whether they're safe in their neighborhood and act against enemies and act against terrorists in the north caucasuses and so forth? it's really not about the cold war and from the american side it's also very much about values. you know? americans tend to believe look at the march of history. we are moving towards liberal democracy. we are moving towards european integration. countries, former soviet countries and former communist countries are gradually moving into that fold and our belief is so too should the russians. they look like us. they share a great american of european western history. why not them? i think the russians resent that and we're on a path of conflict and very much about recent history and not soviet communism. >> okay. bill richardson, breaking news here from buzzfeed, reporting the former secretary of state hillary clinton addressed ongoing crisis at a fund-raiser here in california today making what two attendees describe as a direct comparison of russia's decision of passports in the crimea region to the population transfers of nazi germany before world war ii. what is your reaction to that? >> well, i don't have all the facts on that. but i think what secretary clinton is saying is the illegal nature of what the russians have been doing in crimea, basically saying that those troops, those 16,000 troops are not really troops. they're self-defense forces. and that what they're doing in violation of international law just like the nazis were doing. >> i think if i can just clarify, actually, governor, because what she said -- i think this is quite important to make this clear, she talked about how what putin is doing now is similar to what hitler did essentially providing ethnic russians in the crimean region access back to russia and that it was destabilizing. so drawing a direct parallel of hitler's activitieieies in doin similar things before the second world war and what's going on now with putin. >> look. i would tend to agree with secretary clinton. i don't know if i would phrase it that way. i think what is very, very necessary, despite the fact that it's not been a good week or two weeks for u.s./russian relations or for the west and russia, we need to find ways to lower the temperature, deescalate the tension. we have a lot of common issues that we need to deal with with russians. nuclear weapons in iran. we want their help in north korea to stabilize things there. we need some kind of accommodation in syria. we need not for an escalation beyond crimea to go in to the former soviet republics. but i think at the same time, it's important that this be a signal that nato, the old alliance which is still active and viable, needs to refurbish itself, needs to refurbish itself with missile defense in my judgment. in poland. and we need to also look at an energy policy that substitutes rus russia's effort it is try to use natural gas as a weapon to export it to that region. that's -- i think we have the look forward positively diplomatically and economically. >> governor, good to talk to you. matthew, thank you very much, instead. coming up, the blade runner murder trial. the defense takes aim at a tearful neighbor of oscar pistorius. like a milk-bone biscuit. ♪ say it with milk-bone. you can't always see them. but it's our job to find them. the answers. the solutions. the innovations. all waiting to help us build something better. something more amazing. a safer, cleaner, brighter future. at boeing, that's what building something better is all about. ♪ you stand behind what you say. there's a saying around here, at boeing, that's what building something better is all about. around here you don't make excuses. you make commitments. and when you can't live up to them, you own up, and make it right. some people think the kind of accountability that thrives on so many streets in this country has gone missing in the places where it's needed most. but i know you'll still find it when you know where to look. this is mike. his long race day starts with back pain... ...and a choice. take 4 advil in a day which is 2 aleve... ...for all day relief. "start your engines" with the quicksilver cash back card from capital one, it means unlimited 1.5% cash back on everything you purchase, every day. it doesn't mean, "everything... as long as you buy it at the gas station." it doesn't mean, "everything... until you hit your cash back limit." it means earn 1.5% cash back on every purchase, every place, every occasion, all over creation. that's what everything should mean. so consider... what's in your wallet? that's what everything should mean. i dbefore i dosearch any projects on my home. i love my contractor, and i am so thankful to angie's list for bringing us together. find out why more than two million members count on angie's list. angie's list -- reviews you can trust. day three of oscar pistorius's murder trial is about to begin after the defense hammered one of the neighbors on the stand yesterday. how's the case going? what really happened to reva steenkamp? joining me, henry lee from university of new haven and lisa bloom, author of "suspicious nation." welcome to you both. lisa, we're about to start day three of this compelling trial, obviously. from what you've seen so far and what you have heard, how do you think this is all going to play out? >> i think the prosecution's off to a very strong start. there are two women who say that they heard a woman screaming over and over again and then a man screaming and the four shots. that completely undercuts pistorius's defense that he thought there was a burglar and shoots through a locked door at the burglar and preposterous to begin with. and then screaming, he's in trouble. >> dr. henry lee, a lot of attention being put by the defense on the forensic aspect of all this, in particular, whether oscar pistorius was wearing his prosthetic legs and so on. the angle to fire, the bullets went in and the affect on steenkamp. what are going to be the crucial, crucial facts here? >> the crucial fact going to be first thing is the trajectory. what's the bullet and the direction of the bullet, the ballistic of the flying through the door and how high those bullet hole and where is her wound? and the blood splatter inside of the bathroom in addition, the distance determination, how far the shot was fired. those are extremely crucial. >> right. lisa bloom, how much will oscar pistorius's fame factor in here? we have seen it in american cases, o.j. simpson case, other cases. he is a huge national hero in south africa, a huge pressure on the judge to deliver the right verdict. how much will the celebrity aspect kick in? >> it's a huge benefit for anyone on trial, certainly in america and oscar pistorius even with a judge in south africa. he is a national hero. people don't want to see him in prison and the cases over 20 years of high profile cases, they have proved beyond a shadow of a doubt with a celebrity in the defendant's chair. not just beyond a reasonable doubt. people are relukt about the to incarcerate someone like oscar pistorius. >> this is a clip of her mother talking about oscar pistorius. >> even though it is -- if he made a mistake, i mean, enormous, it's an enormous mistake, i've lost the most precious thing in my life, myself and my husband, our daughter, beautiful daughter and we were close, we were very close, i've lost everything that's important to me. and but still, i can forgive. >> i mean, lisa, extraordinarily powerful and very moving that she could find the strength to say that. >> incredible. it really is. grace and the dignity. but the justice system still needs to go forward. right? >> right. >> even if the victim's family members forgives, she has to do that so as not to live a life of bitterness and a huge problem of domestic violence and rape in south africa. reeva steenkamp was speaking out about that in the days before she was shot ironically. that's a core issue in the case that doesn't get the attention. >> very quickly, written this book, powerful book of the trayvon martin case. tell me about it. >> thank you. i knew something was wrong and had a feeling in the gut there was a lot we weren't seeing in the case. i saw a case going off the rails and did investigation to find out what exactly went on in the jury room, with the witnesses and the lack of preparation. why did prosecution wasn't arguing their best evidence, piers. and that's the results are in my book. i start in the jury room with newer evidence and broader issues of suspicions and fears in america and why i call it "suspicion nation." racial profiling and gun issues. >> it's a powerful book. i commend you on writing it. it's an important book. the important story of the trayvon martin injustice. good to see you, lisa bloom. >> thank you. >> and dr. henry lee. thank you. coming up, emanuel brothers of chicago. only one of them took the polar plunge in lake michigan with jimmy fallon and lived to tell the tale and one will join me next. find out which in a moment. 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[ female announcer ] some questions take more than a bank. they take a banker. make a my financial priorities appointment today. because when people talk, great things happen. chicago mayor rahm emanuel taking the polar plunge with jimmy fallon. temperature 10 degrees. surely that can't be healthy. the mayor's brother, a bioe bioethist. welcome to you. are you surprised to see your brother surviving the polar plunge? >> i always knew he was crazy. it seems nuts to me. >> well, i'm with you on that. this book you've done, i love the subheading, "how the affordable care act will improve our system." apart from that, the health system in america is quite good, isn't it? >> yes, i think we have to remember before the affordable care act was implemented, how much we didn't like our health care system. the fact that rates were going up at 39%, insurance companies could issue rescissions. the fact that 50 million people were uninsured. the uneven quality of care. we needed reform. we got pretty good reform, not perfect but pretty good. so i try to explain how we got it and what it's going to mean for the next decade. >> many doctors i've talked to are actually pretty supportive broadly of the aims of obamacare for want of a better care but they're disgusted in the way it was rolled out and the chronic failure of that rollout system, because it sort of contaminated the brand, didn't it? >> well, look, no one can mince words, it was a very bad october and november for the exchange. but that's not the whole of the affordable care act as i make clear in the book. there are many other parts to it, which are going reasonably well, some better than others. we've had some important slow down in the cost of health care. we've had improvements in the quality of health care, especially nationwide reductions in infections, c-sections before term as well as readmissions to the hospital. so i think focusing excessively only on the exchanges. nonetheless, the exchanges were badly executed and that has given the brand a slightly bad tint. my hope is over the next year, certainly two years, they really improve dramatically and it becomes a pleasure to shop for insurance giving you choices and all the information you need. i think that would change a lot of people's attitude towards the health care reform bill. >> just briefly, where do you think america will with in 20 years' time if the affordable care act really cements itself and becomes much more popular and gets taken up in big numbers? where will america be in terms of health care in two decades? >> well, two decades is a very long time to predict. so i'm going to be -- >> i understand. >> as al hague would say, i'll caveat this. first, most of us will be getting our insurance through the exchange. we're going to be selecting our coverage through the exchange. second, we're going to be selecting not just insurance companies but a lot of health systems. so i expect that the cleveland clinic, the mayo clinic, johns hopkins university, my own university penn, will be offering their own insurance products on the exchange. third, i think we're going to see an era of low growth in health care. fourth, i think we're going to see a real concentration on improving the health of people who already have chronic illness. they're the people who use most of the health care in the system. 10% of the people use about 2/3 of all the dollars. and improving their health. giving them a lot more so that they stay out of the hospital, they continue to take their medicines, they eat well, they exercise. that's going to be the key going forward to improving the whole country's health and wellness. and i think that's going to become a mayor focus of attention. last, we're going to have a very different pool of people caring for us, not just doctors, nurse practitioners, home health aids, telemedicine, being able to talk to your doctor over the phoner a machine in your house. it's going to be radically interesting. >> we have sadly little time. i could talk to you for ages because you're a ridiculously intelligent map ant all this. i've enjoyed the book. i commend people to read it if you want to understand what is going on with american health care. good to talk to you. take care. >> thank you. thank you for having me. >> we'll be right back. the day we rescued riley, was a truly amazing day. without angie's list, i don't know if we could have found all the services we needed for our riley. for over 18 years we've helped people take care of the things that matter most. join today at angieslist.com a short word that's a tall order. up your game. up the ante. and if you stumble, you get back up. up isn't easy, and we ought to know. we're in the business of up. everyday delta flies a quarter of million people while investing billions improving everything from booking to baggage claim. we're raising the bar on flying and tomorrow we will up it yet again. now you can create your own perfecat olive garden, with our new cucina mia menu, for just $9.99. choose the homemade sauce that tempts you the most. like our addictively creamy garlic asiago, devilishly spicy diavolo or garden-fresh primavera with roasted vegetables. all made from scratch and made to order. served with your choice of our new artisinal pastas including gluten free. new cucina mia is all about flavor, all about you, and all just $9.99. at olive garden, we're all family here. anybody have occasional constipation, diarrhea, gas, bloating? 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this tactic that has been used before. >> we'll talk about all this in a moment and get into the big debate, should the u.s. have seen all this coming, considering russia's history of doing this kind of thing before. and this goes back to the grand old days of propaganda wars. >> i'm proud to be an american and believe in disseminating the truth and that is why after this newscast i'm resigning. >> that's ms. wall, quitting on air today, i'll talk to her and her former colleague abby martin who condemned russian aggression on the air and kept her job, well, for now anyway. >> we'll also bring you some stunning story behind this i incredible video, the distressed pregnant mother driving straight into the surf in florida with three of her children on board. i'll speak with the two good samaritans that saved her life. we begin with the story that seems to be playing out on r.t. america. two days after abby martin shocked the world and looked directly at the camera condemning russia's move into the ukraine. >> before we wrap up the show, i want to say something from my heart about the ongoing political issue going on in ukraine. i can't stress enough how strongly i am against any state intervention in a sovereign nation's affairs. what russia did is wrong. i don't know as much as i should be the cultural dynamics of the region but what i do know is military aggression is not an option. above all, my heart goes out to the ukrainian people who are now wedged as pawns in the middle of a global power chess game. they're the real losers here, all we can do now is hope for a peaceful outcome in a terrorist situation. until then, i'll keep telling the truth as i see it. >> abby martin joins me live now. welcome, abby. obviously we're all pretty shocked by what you did and possibly even more shocked by liz wahl who actually quit on air today. were you tempted to do what liz wahl did and what is your reaction to her decision to actually resign? >> i support less in whatever decision she wants to make. but i knew that i would be putting my job on the line i did know that going against the iraq war. i knew that going against the editorial line of my network, i could put my job on the line. fortunately that hasn't happened yet. >> what pressure have you come under internally if any from management to perhaps rein back your position? or have they warned you about your conduct? >> surprisingly, piers, it goes in line with everything i have been saying in the past 20 years, i'm staunchly anti-military interventionist, i stay true to my beliefs and my moral compass and management was supportive. i talked to my boss today, he said we support you, i said if i disagree with something that russia is doing i will continue to speak out. they gave me the complete editorial freedom to do whatever i want on my show "breaking the set" and all i can speak for is what i do on my show. >> are you concerned about other parts of the programming on r.t. america? do you believe that although your show might have an independent voice, the other programming doesn't and it has drifted in the last week into blatant propaganda. >> we're talking about six corporations that control 90% of what americans see, hear and read. the leadup to the iraq war, parroting exactly what the establishment said. i mean you can reflect the exact same criticism on all the corporate media channels. i can only speak for my show, i stay true to my moral compass. but r.t. chose a perspective of the russian foreign policy, just as the entire correspondent media apparatus chose the establishment. >> what is your specific criticism about the way r.t. america has covered this crisis? >> you know, i just saw the way that the entire media apparatus was covering it. i mean r.t. was covering it in a different way that i didn't agree with and then i saw the corporate media coverage almost wanting to revive the cold war. i felt like people were egging on obama to attack militarily. it's insane living in a time where we have corporate media actually supporting military intervention and action against russia. this is no joke here, we got to really take a step back and see how we can do thing peacefully and diplomatically and not come to warmonger, and tell the american people what's going on. >> and tell me this, in the clip we played, when you made your dramatic statement, you conceded you weren't an expert on what is going on in the ukraine. i presume that you've probably come up to speed pretty quickly, given all the attention you've had. what do you think, with all your experience broadcasting on r.t. america is the correct way for this crisis to resolve? >> i hope it resolves diplomatically, as you can imagine, the last few days have been pretty hectic. i just hope for a peaceful outcome with no more military aggression, i hope the military aggression is scaled back and we can see a peaceful outcome. but the question that has to be asked, why do i have to work for r.t. to tell the truth about corporations and the u.s. government. you guys are beholden to advertisers that are not open to criticism. >> i don't. i'm free to say what the hell i like. no one's going to tell me i can't criticize advertisers or corporate entities, that conversation has never happened in the three years i have been on cnn. >> fair -- >> abby martin, good to talk to you. i want to read a statement, it says to cnn from r.t. saying r.t. hosts and journalists are free to express their own opinions. which is what abby martin did, and she has not been reprimanded for what she said. i want to turn to liz wahl, she quit on air earlier today. she joins me now. liz wahl, i want to read to you, right off the top what r.t. is saying about you, when a journalist disagrees with the opinion of his or her -- where someone makes a big public show of a personal decision, it is nothing more than a self promoted stunt. we wish liz the best of luck on her chosen path. what is your reaction to that? >> this is the first time i saw their reaction. i was wondering what their reaction would be and i actually had some hesitations on -- i fear what measures they would take against me, what retaliatory measures they would take against me. but at the end of the day, piers, like i said earlier on anderson's show, i believe in the truth, trying to seek the truth and disseminating the truth. and what's become very clear especially in the face of this crisis with crimea is that the objective of r.t. has to promote putinist propaganda, to promote the conflict as putin wants us to see it and to bash the u.s. and make us look like we're the bad guys. i mentioned earlier, personal reasons why i felt morally inclined to say something and to resign. and that is because, i mean, my grand parents, they were refugees, they came to america to seek a better life. had my grandmother not bribed a guard with money and brandy, she would have been killed. and i -- my dad ended up because of this joining the military. met my mother in the philippines, i have family over there and i see how lucky i ham to live in this country because i see the conditions they're subjected to. i have family members who know what the daily grind of poverty is like and i feel lucky to live in this country. >> let me jump in. i want to just play to viewers the moment that you quit live on air and then come back to you with a specific question about what you just said. >> personally i cannot be part of a network funded by the russian government that whitewashes the actions of putin. i'm proud to be an american and believe in disseminating the truth and that is why after this newscast, i am resigning. >> just a few hours earlier that was, my reaction would be what some people are reacting to what you did. if you feel this strongly, why would you join r.t. america to start with? it has got a history of being pretty favorable toward putin, it's got a lot of government support that it's enjoyed over the years. obviously putin's behavior is not dissimilar to russia's behavior towards georgia and other places. why would you want to work for that organization in the first place? >> that's a good question, i think i didn't know exactly the extent of the propaganda that is this machine. i thought, you know that, the cold war was over and maybe i didn't realize that there would be this much of an infringement on the editorial, as much pressure, i guess i wasn't expecting that. i tried to make the most of the situation. i'm not saying that haven't done work that i'm not proud of doing, i have absolutely worked on stories that i think are important and i tried to use my platform to work on stories and pitch stories that are important. i think management knew that i wasn't very comfortable when it came to some of the more extreme ends of the things. i've been contemplating quitting for a long time. >> let me ask you this, do you think that abby martin, given her position on all this should also resign? >> i don't -- i can't speak for abby martin. i can say that i respect her, she's very outspoken, she's an outspoken woman. >> i'm not asking you to speak for her. i'm just saying is your personal opinion given the scale of propaganda that you believe r.t. america has been pumping out, should she act on a point of principle and do what you have done? it's your opinion not hers. >> i don't want to say what abby should or shouldn't do. the thing is that abby speaks her mind and her show doesn't experience that much editorial control because she's very outspoken, she's ---the views, i don't know if you have checked out her show before. but it happens to be a narrative that r.t. likes. and i respect her. i respect abby, i respect her convictions and i don't want to speak for her at all. >> thank you for joining me. joining me to shed light on the this. christoph, what do you make of these two r.t. american broadcasters? one making a big statement, abby martin, the other liz wahl resigning on air. what is your view journalistically and what they have done? >> i admire their outspokenness, but at the end of the day, r.t. is a russian propaganda arm and i don't think it's going to matter very much to the geo political consequences here anymore than if a, you know, american voice of america russian reporter was to quit because of their disagreements with american policy. you know, at the end of the day, i think the really difficult problem here is that it's not that people are abandoning putin so much, but that he remains very popular within russia with 66 popularity and television in particular has said that putin has been very successful at squashing within russia. i admire those who fight against the system, who resist whether they be here at r.t. or those incredibly brave russian newspaper reporters reporting on corruption at the risk of their lives in moscow. but i think it's kind of a side show. >> let's get to the main show after the break, which is what is going on right now in the ukraine and in crimea. i want to talk to you particularly about hillary clinton comparing what is going on with what hitler was doing in the buildup to the second world war, whether you think that's a fair analysis or not. >> now, if this sounds familiar, it's what hitler did back in the '30s. all the germans, the ethnic germans, the germans by ancestry who were in places like czechoslovakia and other places and hitler kept saying they're not being treated right, i must go and protect my people. than's what's got everybody so nervous. >> we'll be back after the break with your reaction to that. but i am so stuffed up, i can't rest. 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[ female announcer ] some questions take more than a bank. they take a banker. make a my financial priorities appointment today. because when people talk, great things happen. i'm here with christoph and his thoughts on hillary clinton's -- activities of hitler in the second world war and what vladimir putin is now doing, offering passports to russian speakers in crimea, and so on. >> in a very narrow sense there was inaccuracy to that, the act that led to world war ii and he did it on the grounds that he was protecting ethnic germans, so there is some mild parallel there. but the significant is that it led to the invasion of poland, the invasion of france and led to a world war. i don't think anybody thinks that putin is about to unleash a new world war by seizing crimea, there is a possibility that it will get worst in the ukraine. >> your father grew up in ukraine, you were in ukraine yourself in 2004 during the orange revolution. let me ask you this question, i read in a "new york times" letter today, which is putting aside the military action that's gone on this week that's outraged everybody. is there a good common sense argument that crimea and indeed eastern ukraine ought to be part of russia? >> only in the sense that the crimeans and many eastern ukrainians are russian speakers, they're sympathetic to russia, they have a russian background. there is that divide, but even if there is this kind of divide, then that's not an excuse for one country to march across and seize the territory of another. and one of the problems that putin is going to face in the case of crimea is that it doesn't have a land border with russia and it's electricity and it's water come from ukraine. so it's not a very sustainable independent state. >> if you put yourself in the head of vladimir putin, for both of us would be a hard thing to do. but imagine for a moment, you're looking at one of his key allies, in his eyes a democratically elected leader has been forced out by a sort of under cover plot, probably aided and abetted by people in europe and the americans and so on, and that in his head justifies the actions that he believes he's taken. do you have any empathy with him as a leader viewing it in that way, notwithstanding the fact that he's always been a bit thuggi thuggish in the way he's dealing with it? >> if i was his advisor, i would say, look, vladimir, yes it would be a terrible tragedy if we were to lose ukraine, part of our ancestral origins as russian people a buffer between us and the west, a buffer between us and nato. but if we go ahead and seize crimea, this will be bad for russia, this is bad for our own interests. we will have to be subsidizing crimea forever, we will be repelling ukraine into the arms of the west, just as surely as brezhnev propelled czechoslovakia by invading in 1968. so this is not good for our national reputation, it's not good for our economy and it's nod good for our own interests. >> we know that putin is not a stupid man, no one will say that. >> but he does have his own world view does tend to be rather different from those of other people. >> and we know that, you know n 2005, he made this big speech saying that the disintegration of the soviet union -- he still feels very beleaguered business what happened there, but this is not going to escalate into any conflict of any great substance. so how do you think this ends? >> i think that the -- the great risk here of course has been that russian troops would march across into eastern ukraine into and you would have a war there. in time that risk is easing. so i think the most likely scenario is that best case will not happen which is that russian forces withdrawing from crimea and international observers going in, i think is quite unlikely. the worst case is quite unlikely which is a war in east ukraine. i think the most likely scenario is that russian troops will remain in crimea. there will be some type of election that will have perhaps independents but probably more likely a great deal of autonomy. i think it's useful for them to vote in ukrainian elections. he doesn't want to lose those voters to help change the winds of the ukraine. this will be a long-term standoff. you had something similar in maldova where you had a russian transition of the area, and so i don't think this is going to be resolved any time soon. in the long run, though, i think that ukraine is going to end up a flourishing western economy like poland and just as ukrainians today look to poland, i think russians are going to look to a thriving ukraine and want to be like ukrainians. >> final question, we had this debate last night on the show, why so many americans hate russians. whether that really is accurate, that he should be demonized in the way he's being demonized in america. and whether it's helpful generally that that is the way he's portrayed. >> i think he deserves a lot of criticism, frankly, in the way we a's dealt with chechnya, the way he's dealt with syria, the international community. on your second point, though, i think there is real danger when we demonize leaders, when we draw lines between us and them, because the instinct is to cut off communication with them and i think at the end of the day, it's more important to talk to our enemies than to our friends. and i hope that we will manage to stand up to putin and criticize him sharply and impose sanctions, but still keep those lines of communications open, not just because if we need him in the case of the ukraine, but syrians are going to be dying because we are less able to work with moscow on resolving the crisis in syria. we're going to be less likely to get a deal in iran because of this crisis and so on and so on. >> i was very struck by again, my conversation with president clinton about this, when he said that he actually in a room one-on-one with putin, he trusted him completely because he never went back on his word with bill clinton when it was just the two of them and they had a deal. but he said at the same time what you had to not do is come out and expose putin with embarrassment at home with his people by being too overtly critical. that's where at the moment people have to be quite careful. because if you go to him as a beast, that could be very self-defeating. >> yes, and there is this broader problem that putin has quite successfully rereplaced communism as the glue of the soviet union with nationalism as the glue of russia. that has helped him marginalize a lot of his opponent. he is much more popular in russia than president obama is in the united states, according to the opinion polls. >> right. >> that makes him a difficult antagonist to deal with. >> great to talk to you, thank you very much indeed. >> my pleasure. is it a case of the sneaky russians or should the u.s. have seen all this coming. we'll debate all that next. the distressed mother who drove her car straight into the ocean. i'll talk to the good samaritans who saved her and her children. hey kevin...still eating chalk for heartburn? 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[ male announcer ] new alka seltzer fruits chews. now you can create your own perfecat olive garden, with our new cucina mia menu, for just $9.99. choose the homemade sauce that tempts you the most. like our addictively creamy garlic asiago, devilishly spicy diavolo or garden-fresh primavera with roasted vegetables. all made from scratch and made to order. served with your choice of our new artisinal pastas including gluten free. new cucina mia is all about flavor, all about you, and all just $9.99. at olive garden, we're all family here. you stand behind what you say. there's a saying around here, around here you don't make excuses. you make commitments. and when you can't live up to them, you own up, and make it right. some people think the kind of accountability that thrives on so many streets in this country has gone missing in the places where it's needed most. but i know you'll still find it when you know where to look. and as for president putin, i know we are dealing with a tough guy with a thin skin. i know that his political vision is of a greater russia. i said when i was still secretary that his goal to the resovietize russia's periphery. >> putin's aggression isn't exactly news to the history of russia. joining me now, steven wolf, professor of international affairs at harvard. welcome to both of you. steven wolf, why are we professing to be so stunned by this when it's absolutely predictable and indeed entirely in keeping with the way russia has behaved for the last three or four decades. >> we should been surprised and we in particular shouldn't surprised that putin reacted as he did when after the united states and the nato allies have been steadily moving nato eastward, deploying plastic missile defenses there. and we particularly shouldn't be surprised when we saw what happened in georgia in 2008. when georgia began provoking russia and putin responded very aggressively. they have made it very clear all along that there was a limit to how far they wanted to see western influence move in what they regard as their backyard. and as ukraine gang to unravel, we should have been anticipating a rather forceful russian response. >> p.j. crowley, is vladimir putin as big a devil in all of this as many in america and indeed europe would like to portray him or does he have a point of wanting in his eyes to protect the interests of russian speaking people in the ukraine. does he have any merit in terms of the russian national interest, never mind anybody else's. >> as steven said, i agree that russia has a keen interest in the ukraine over its history. it's always had a buffer. that buffer has been reduced from the cold war to ukraine. putin is a brutally rational actor, the dilemma is that he has a high pain threshold and he probably is willing to pay a higher price that is in russia's long-term interest to have a sway in the future of ukraine. >> steven, wasn't america a bit too quick to -- if you look at somewhere like egypt, it's very easy to back the new horse without really being sure what that new horse is going to do and then regret it later? >> i think that's right. and the issue in russia of course is that ukraine is right next door, as p.j. said, it's always been considered a vital interest for them and when we began to lean, even indirectly or tacitly in favor of the demonstrators, this is another indication of the united states trying to incorporate what they see as their sphere of interest. >> vladimir putin said it was utter hypocrisy from the americans, they march around going into iraq, afghanistan, libya, whenever they fancy it, whenever it suits them in a national interest. what's wrong with me doing what i'm doing to defend my country's national interest? is he right, is there a charge of hypocrisy there that can be met with facts? >> up to a point, what vladimir putin has done is re-establish leverage over a ukraine that was spinning beyond his control and beyond his comfort level. i don't necessarily, obviously, some concerns about the level of force that he's used in crimea, but up to the point in which we find ourselves, i find his actions concerning, but not necessarily overly provocative. is real question is what happens now? i think that while ukraine is a buffer, nonetheless, ukraine has the right to look west if it wants to, look east if it wants to. i think there's a way of managing this so that ukraine can have an economy that is oriented towards the west, obviously one of the sharp areas of disagreement would be if ukraine were to followthrough with an invitation to join nato, that obviously was put aside that ukraine is not aligned at this time. and where ukraine goes in the future, if he serves russia's interest up to a point, fair enough. if he goes beyond that, he's at risk of going beyond that, one thing he has done so far is to dramatically unify ukrainian public opinion. >> a point i raised earlier with christoph, which is an interesting argument to put out there, which is if you take aside the military action that's gone on, isn't there a pretty coherent argument geographically, politically, economically and socially at least in terms of the people that, crimea and eastern ukraine should actually be merged back into russia? >> i think that tearing apart any country is an unpredictable business and they don't usually divide very neatly. so i think one of the things we want to try and do is to prevent that from happening and certainly not escalate this to the point where putin feels like dismembering ukraine is the best option. crimea is small, it's only been part of the ukraine since 1950s. you could perhaps imagine russia retaining control of crimea for quite some time. i think going further from that would be to escalate this one more step and that's one of the things we should be trying to avoid. if we want to avoid that, if we want to try and manage this and gradual did deescalate it, we're going to have to think very seriously about providing russia with some guarantees with the thing that they most oppose, namely ukraine joining nato, the u.s. led alliance system, that we may have to provide some guarantees that that's not going to happen. they may not have a pro soviet leader or pro russian leader, rather in kiev, but they're not going to have an anti-russian leader there either. that ukraine will be effectively neutral for quite some time. i think that may be the way forward to try to resolve this matter. >> thank you both very much indeed. coming up, would you jump off a burning building to save a life? you never quite know what you'll do in that situation. my next guest did exactly that. impact wool exports from new zealand, textile production in spain, and the use of medical technology in the u.s.? at t. rowe price, we understand the connections of a complex, global economy. it's just one reason over 75% of our mutual funds beat their 10-year lipper average. t. rowe price. invest with confidence. request a prospectus or summary prospectus with investment information, risks, fees and expenses to read and consider carefully before investing. with investment information, risks, fees and expenses predibut, manufacturings a prettin the united states do. means advanced technology. we learned that technology allows us to be craft oriented. no one's losing their job. there's no beer robot that has suddenly chased them out. the technology is actually creating new jobs. siemens designed and built the right tools and resources to get the job done. we'll be here at lifelock doing our thing: you do your swipe from anywhere thing, watching out for your identity, data breach or not. get lifelock protection and live life free. allthat's it?go out to dinner. i mean, he picks up the tab every time, which is great... he's using you. he probably has a citi thankyou card and gets 2x the points at restaurants. huh the citi thankyou preferred card. now earn 2x the points on dining out, with no annual fee. go to citi.com/thankyoucards then a little time to kick back. earn double hilton honors points with the 2x points package and be one step closer to a weekend break. doubletree by hilton. where the little things mean everything. an unidentified pregnant woman drives her suv straight into the ocean in daytona beach, florida. inside the car, her three children, aged 9, 10 and 3. my next guest ran straight into the choppy ocean waters and rescued the entire family one by one. joining me now are those hereries. welcome to both of you. and first of all congratulations on saving the lives of all these people and in particular, the poor children. let me start with you, if i may, tim, you were driving with your wife along the shore, what did you see? >> i just seen the van driving in the water and we knew that was a red flag right off the bat, you know. we could hear the kids start to scream and we thought we heard one just holler for help. and we listened a little harder and we heard them plainly screaming for help. and i just threw my vehicle in park and just, just took off running, just nonstop so that i could get there. wasn't thinking about nothing but saving those kids. >> when you got to the car, what did you find there? >> one kid was in the back seat with his arms out crying. and one kid was on the mother's lap, like wrestling her for the steering wheel, trying to steer her away from the ocean, trying to turn her away, back up the sand. and we kept telling her, stacy and i was like, ma'am, you got to get out of this ocean, you're going to go to jail. the police are coming, we could hear sirens. and she looked at us with this blank look, she looked at us and said we're fine, we're going to be okay or something like that. she looked back out the windshield and she just made a left turn and like dove into the ocean with the van. and we said we got to get them kids out. and one kid in the back seat screamed out, please help us, our mom's trying to kill us. >> stacy, let me turn to you, you were actually the first person to actually reach the children. what were you thinking was going on here? did you think it was an accident? or were you aware quite quickly, this was quite deliberate, this mother who was clearly fairly deranged at the time hat deliberately driven the suv into the ocean? >> after she made that turn, i figured it had become deliberate. because we, again, me and tim was trying to get her out of the water. and she got far away from us enough to we couldn't touch the van at all anymore and she shot off towards the deeper end and from there we knew it was serious. it was deliberate. >> and what was the mother's condition? obviously your first thought was to save these kids, but what state was the mother in and what was she saying to you? >> she wasn't saying much past that they were okay. she just kept repeating that they were okay, they were fine. and i was telling her that you have to get out of the water, the kids are scared, the police are coming, you're not supposed to be in the water. and her response was i'm okay, we're okay, we're okay. and from there, that's when she shot off into the water. >> stacy, do you believe that if you and tim hadn't taken the very quick action you took, given the conditions of the ocean, do you think those kids would have died? >> it's possible. it's possible. i believe they probably would have. there was a good chance. >> you guys showed extraordinary heroism and speed. let me come back to you, tim. it turns out there was a complicated back story to this. this woman was pregnant. she had been behaving quite irrationally during the day. concerned people who knew her called the police. they actually talked to her and concluded she was okay, she wasn't feeling either homicidal or suicidal. but she was clearly unhinged to do what she did. did the police tell you about all that had gone on earlier in the day. >> no, i had just found that out about the police being at her residence just a couple of hours ago. i have had news crews at my house all day, i just found that out like two hours before i came down here to do this interview that the police was at her house two hours prior to this and evaluated her and let her go and then two hours later, she drives her kids into the atlantic ocean. >> it sounds extraordinary that that would happen. let's take a short break. when we come back, i want to talk to you about what these kids said to you as you carried them out of the ocean. they must have been incredibly grateful to both of you, but what they actually said to you. marge: you know, there's a more enjoyable way to get your fiber. try phillips fiber good gummies. they're delicious, and a good source of fiber to help support regularity. wife: mmmm husband: these are good! marge: the tasty side of fiber. from phillips. he was a matted messiley in a small cage. ng day. so that was our first task, was getting him to wellness. without angie's list, i don't know if we could have found all the services we needed for our riley. from contractors and doctors to dog sitters and landscapers, you can find it all on angie's list. we found riley at the shelter, and found everything he needed at angie's list. join today at angieslist.com where their electricity comes from. they flip the switch-- and the light comes on. it's our job to make sure that it does. using natural gas this power plant can produce enough energy for about 600,000 homes. generating electricity that's cleaner and reliable, with fewer emissions-- it matters. ♪ i'm back with my two guests, who rescued all three children from a car driven into the beach. also joining me now, dr. javier, noted psychologist. welcome to you. wait one second i want to talk to stacy robinson, one of the two heroes who rescued the children. as you were carrying the children out, stacey, what were the kids saying to you when you got to the beach and were safe? >> they just kept screaming they had their little sister in the car seat still. and they needed help. they wanted their sister safe as well. that's when i told tim there was another baby in the car. that's when he took off and a couple lifeguards came with him and they rescued the child from the car seat, as well. >> let me bring in the doctor. we've had stories like this before of mothers who have, for whatever reason, been mentally unbalanced or disturbed and they have tried to kill their children or killed their children and some have been very notorious cases. what do you think has gone on here? and what would make a mother do this? i'm not sure -- i don't think we have the right connection there. i'm going to move back to tim. i'm sorry we couldn't get ahold of the doctor. let me ask you, tim, when you got to the baby, who was still strapped in, did you feel at any stage that you were not going to be able to get the baby out in time? how rough was the ocean where you were? >> by this point, the ocean had pulled the van out a little further and the van was rocking pretty good like a boat. when stacey hollered back at me and i heard the kids hollering over his shoulder, get the baby, the baby is in the car seat, there was a that particular moment. it all turned out for the good. the mother was saved, i hope she gets the treatment she needs. i would love to see the kids again, stacy is a lot closer than i am. me and stacy have been in touch all day today on facebook. exchanged numbers, we would love to meet back unwith the kids in the future. >> thank you so much for joining me for this interview tonight. you are heroes to me, i'm sure everyone else watching. those kids, i think owe their lives to you and your speedy action. it's that great question, isn't it? do you do it or not? you guys raced straight in, risking your own lives in the rough ocean, i'm incredibly grateful to you. i'm sure the family and everyone connected with those children. so thank you very much indeed. >> thank you. >> and thank you to dr. xavier amandour. horsehide, bullet. right where it needs to be. coach calls it logistics. he's a great passer. dependable. a winning team has to have one. somebody you can count on. somebody like my dad. this is my dad. somebody like my mom. my grandfather. i'm very pround of him. her. them. millions have raised their hand for the proven relief of the purple pill. and that relief could be in your hand. for many, nexium helps relieve heartburn symptoms from acid reflux disease. find out how you can save at purplepill.com. there is risk of bone fracture and low magnesium levels. side effects may include headache, abdominal pain, and diarrhea. if you have persistent diarrhea, contact your doctor right away. other serious stomach conditions may exist. avoid if you take clopidogrel. for many, relief is at hand. ask your doctor about nexium. with waffles and laughs for our family of four. the pool is there waiting, don't you dare fret. there's no need to ask, "are we there yet?" be a weekender at hotels like hampton and embassy suites book now at hiltonweekends.com [poof!] [beep] [clicks mouse] nice office. how you doing? good. automatic discounts the moment you sign up. that's all for us tonight. anderson cooper starts right now. good evening, everyone. we are live from ukraine. another day, of dramatic developments on the ground. also in europe and the united states. we want to get to all of that in the hour ahead. i want to set the scene, where we are, to give you a sense. this is one of the main roads going down into independence square. there are barricades all in place, this is still an active site of protests. there are protesters here who are camped out. you can see some of them huddled around a fire trying to stay warm.