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Judge Temporarily Pauses Purge Of 2,200 USAID Workers; Trump Revokes Former President Biden's Access To Classified Information; 3 More Israeli Hostages Freed Under Gaza Deal; U.S. Senate Republicans Unveil Budget Plan For Trump Agenda. New York Lawmaker Says Trump Bypassed Congress with $7 Billion Arms Sales to Israel; Three Israelis Formerly Held Hostage By Hamas Now Back in Israel; Trump to Attend Super Bowl LIX in New Orleans. Aired 6-7a ET

Aired February 08, 2025 - 06:00   ET

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

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[06:00:27]

AMARA WALKER, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everyone. Welcome to CNN This Morning. It is Saturday, February 8th. I'm Amara Walker.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Victor Blackwell. Thank you for joining us. We're following developments across several stories this morning. Up first, the federal judges temporarily blocked the Trump administration's plan to put thousands of employees at USAID on leave and ordered that those who were suspended be reinstated. The reason behind the judge's order and what it means for the agency.

WALKER: President Trump says he is revoking former President Biden's access to classified information and stopping him from receiving daily intelligence briefings. The significance of the timing of the announcement next.

BLACKWELL: Three more hostages were released this morning as part of that hostage and cease fire deal between Israel and Hamas. Our Jeremy Diamond is live in Hostage Square with the latest.

WALKER: And it's Super Bowl weekend and security around New Orleans has been stepped up following last month's terror attack. An inside look at the precautions ahead of the big game is next.

Well, this morning a federal judge has put a hold on President Trump's plan to lay off thousands of workers at the U.S. Aid for International Development Agency, I should say. And the president's executive order would have left the agency with fewer than 300 employees. Hours before the ruling, crews were seen removing signage from USAID headquarters.

BLACKWELL: The judge's ruling prevented more than 2,200 people from being placed on administrative leave. He also ordered the government to reinstate the hundreds of people who had already been placed on leave. Now, the ruling applies to employees who work for USAID directly, but thousands of contractors who make up a large part of the agency's work, their workforce have already been furloughed or laid off.

Joining me now, Shan Wu, defense attorney, former federal prosecutor. Shan, good morning to you. So the big headline is about this judge's order to block placing workers on leave and reinstating those who had already been placed on leave. But as it relates to the finances and some of those other kind of sub headlines, what do you glean from those?

SHAN WU, FORMER FEDERAL PROSECUTOR: So this temporary restraining order the judge granted only applies to personnel issues, meaning the people who are about to be laid off, and very importantly, all the workers abroad who are being recalled in great haste. Usually you have six to nine months when you're abroad to come back, and they're telling them be back in 30 days.

It doesn't affect the funding, which is significant, but it's really important. I think one of the reasons the TRO was granted was because there's actually physical danger issues for people abroad. As the judge said, being placed on administrative leave in Beirut or Syria is not the same as being placed on that in Bethesda. It's a little bit different.

BLACKWELL: Yes. Despite the, I guess, largely performative element of removing the sign from the building and putting duct tape over anything that says USAID on signs in DC. There's a hearing on Wednesday about how to move forward. What should we expect then? How long will this fight go? And, you know, what happens to these workers while this is litigated?

WU: Well, what happens while it's being litigated is they live with great uncertainty, but they shouldn't have to come back from being stationed overseas. They'll continue to work. I think, but we'll expect to see, and the judge will expect to see is a lot more specifics being laid out, really, on the part of the government to explain how they're planning to close this down and also to give the reasons for it.

There's a pretty broad bunch of challenges to this type of action, most notably that you cannot disband an agency just by executive order because the agency was created by an act of Congress. So I expect to see with a little bit more time, the judge is going to want to dive deeper into those issues.

BLACKWELL: So also, a judge, a district judge, is blocking DOGE's access to the Treasury Department. How broad is the President's purview of granting access? I mean, Congress allocates the funds, right?

[06:05:00]

The power of the purse is with Article 1 in the United States Congress. But the chief executive granting access to an executive apartment -- department of the executive branch, is that well within his purview?

WU: It would be in his purview if that's really what he was doing. And I think that's exactly the big problem right now is it's not clear what kind of access is being granted and to whom is it being granted to, much less what they're going to do with the access. That's really the reason behind this great alarm, the multiple lawsuits going on and why it's likely in all these students being a sea there's going to be these temporary freezes on the situation.

There just isn't enough clarity as to how that access is being granted and for what reason. And there's a huge privacy issue with these granting of accesses and the people's privacy. All of ours needs to be protected. And that's where the irreparable harm comes in. I mean, you know, once that genie is out of the bottle, it's out. You can't put it back in at all. And that's why there's a very strong reason why the judges are granting this TRO.

BLACKWELL: Shan, so much of what we've watched over. I won't say so much. A lot of what we've watched over the last couple of weeks seems to be performative. Much like I mentioned taking the sign off the USAID building. That is not something that had to happen immediately.

I wonder if this next story is a case of something that is also performative. The headline is maybe worse than it actually is. I'm a read the headline here. U.S. attorney says he will investigate list of people referred to him by Elon Musk. This was posted on Twitter from a U.S. Attorney in Washington DC. And it said sent only via X.

So this letter about to put the tweet up now is a letter from a U.S. attorney, possibly to this special employment -- special government employee. But he only put it on social media. Right?

This isn't an actual letter that was sent, being referred people to investigate and just putting it on his platform. Is this egregious? Is this for show? Is this atypical?

WU: I think you're right with the performative aspects. I think it is very much for show, but it is egregious in this sense. While any citizen is free to ask a prosecutor or investigators, law enforcement to look at something. What's not normal is for that investigative agency to tell everybody, yes, we're looking at it, that obviously would compromise the investigation.

And this using X as being the form for these types of communications also indicates that U.S. attorney is quite willing to violate these sorts of protections about the integrity of an investigation, possibly naming the people. We've had this big fight over FBI agents' names being turned over who had worked on January 6th. So it all goes a lot back to the same privacy type issues. And so there's two problems with that.

One, there's going to be big privacy issues with exposing people's names, saying we think you've done something wrong. And then number two, for an actual investigation to take place, it's really problematic to be broadcasting it that way.

BLACKWELL: Shane Wu, thank you.

WALKER: From fighting disease to feeding the hungry, USAID is credited with saving the lives of millions around the world. Humanitarian groups say without the agency, deaths will be inevitable. CNN's Brian Todd reports on their growing fears.

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BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): At this hospital in Thailand, refugees from war torn Myanmar say services at their refugee camp came to a sudden stop after the U.S. froze aid to the region.

MAUNG LAY, INJURED REFUGEE FROM MYANMAR (through translator): We don't have money to buy medicines. We will all die if we have no medicine at the camp.

TODD (voice-over): Part of the fallout worldwide of President Trump's decision to gut the U.S. Agency for International Development, USAID, the agency that provides food and other humanitarian assistance to millions around the world. The president citing alleged waste and fraud unearthed by Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency.

SAMANTHA POWER, FROMER USAID ADMINISTRATOR: 60 percent of the budget goes to humanitarian emergencies literally to provide shelter, food and medicine to keep people alive.

TODD (voice-over): In 2023, USAID says it provided nearly $2 billion in food assistance to more than 45 million people around the world. But now food services in famine stricken places like Sudan are already shutting down, programs to provide safe drinking water for billions of people in like the Democratic Republic of Congo. Ethiopia and India are under threat and the impact on treatments for disease could be catastrophic.

ANDREW NATSIOS, FORMER HEAD OF USAID UNDER PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH: There are health clinics around the world that are treating people for HIV, AIDS, for measles, for children who get measles, 50 percent of them die in the developing world.

[06:10:07]

We had a campaign to eradicate polio that's been stopped.

TODD (voice-over): And USAID's ability to detect and treat diseases doesn't just help people in faraway lands.

DR. ATUL GAWANDE, FORMER USAID ASSISTANT ADMINISTRATOR FOR GLOBAL HEALTH: For responding to diseases that are, that threaten populations and can come to the United States. A case example is right now in Uganda is a very serious Ebola outbreak in the capital city.

TODD (voice-over): And another malaria uptick in the U.S. like the one in Florida in recent years is possible if agencies like USAID can't detect it overseas first. USAID also works with security agencies to safeguard Americans.

STEVE SCHMIDA, FORMER USAID CONTRACTOR: There are organizations monitoring ISIS right in Syria, trying to keep an eye on extremist groups to make sure they don't attack us again. You know, these are, they've gone dark.

TODD (voice-over): Work often done by USAID employees who are putting themselves in peril.

ZOLAN KANNO-YOUNGS, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, THE NEW YORK TIMES: You have USAID employees incredibly dangerous areas that are impacted not just by disease, but also conflict and war. At least some of these workers are in places where they are risking their lives.

TODD (voice-over): And in some cases dying. In 2023, a USAID contractor was killed in an airstrike in Gaza. In 2010, suicide bombers stormed a USAID compound in northern Afghanistan, killing four people.

TODD: According to analysts and two former top USAID officials who spoke to CNN, another disturbing ripple effect is that as USAID pulls out of developing nations, America's adversaries like China, Russia and Iran could move right in to fill that void, distributing their own aid to those countries, winning hearts and minds on the ground, something China has already been doing in places like Africa and Latin America. Victor Amara.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WALKER: All right, Brian Todd, thank you for that. Now President Trump is once again using the power of his office to punish his perceived enemies.

BLACKWELL: Last night, the president announced he's revoking former President Biden's security clearances. CNN's Jeff Zeleny reports the timing may not be a coincidence. Jeff.

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JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Victor and Amara. It's become clear that former President Joe Biden is clearly on the mind of President Donald Trump. It became apparent again on Friday night as President Trump was flying down to Mar-a-Lago. He, out of the blue, seemed to revoke the security clearance in the daily intelligence briefings of former President Biden.

Now, this comes exactly four years after President Biden effectively did the same thing to President Trump. Of course, that was in the wake of the January 6th insurrection. At the time, President Biden said Donald Trump's behavior is erratic and he does not need those briefings.

Well, President Trump, as he continues to have President Biden on his mind, basically did the same thing Friday night, but took it one step further. He said that President Biden will also not have a security clearance.

I am told, however, that former presidents do not have security clearances. They can receive security briefings, intelligence briefings, and here is why. As they travel around the world or give speeches, they like to be read in on what is going on in certain regions of the world. And they often bring information back to the U.S. intelligence community.

Think Jimmy Carter, for example. He traveled for decades after leaving the presidency. He was read in with the latest intelligence information and then would share it once he returned to the US. But Donald Trump clearly, in a tit for tat moment, said that Joe Biden does not deserve these security briefings. And he made that on Friday night. But again, this comes four years to the time when President Biden did the exact same thing on super bowl weekend. So you have to wonder if President Trump had that in mind. Victor and Amara.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLACKWELL: All right, Jeff, thank you. So we're learning more about that regional passenger jet that disappeared over Alaska. Search crews have found the wreckage of the plane. What we've learned about the final moments before it disappeared from radar.

WALKER: Plus, three more Israeli hostages are free. But there is growing condemnation over what some are calling the disturbing condition the men are in. We are live in Tel Aviv with the latest.

BLACKWELL: And the White House is pressuring Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to ramp up migrant arrests. More on the plan and new details about upcoming ICE raids in another major Democratic led city.

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[06:19:05]

BLACKWELL: Search crews have found the wreckage of a regional airline flight that disappeared over Alaska with 10 people aboard. The Coast Guard says so far that they have identified three bodies inside the plane, with another seven believed to be inside that wreckage. Investigators say the flight was headed to Nome, Alaska Thursday afternoon and was 12 miles offshore when it disappeared. The plane was found in pieces in snow and in the water more than 30 miles southeast of Nome.

The Coast Guard commander says something happened to cause the flight to dramatically lose speed and elevation.

The discovery of seven cases of bird flu in poultry has prompted New York's governor to close all live bird markets in Nassau, Suffolk and Westchester counties. Also in New York City. New York Governor Kathy Hochul announced yesterday that the markets will be closed through February 14th and must be inspected before reopening.

[06:20:00]

She calls it a proactive action, adding that, quote, there is no immediate public health threat. New York's state health commissioner also said that New York does not have any cases of bird flu in humans.

Broadway and film actor Tony Roberts has died at the age of 85. No cause of death has been given. Roberts was well known for appearing in many Woody Allen films. The actor appeared in Allen's productions of "Annie Hall and Hannah and Her Sisters." He also co-starred with Julie Andrews in Victor/Victoria. His TV credits include "Murder, She Wrote" and "Law and Order."

WALKER: All right, let's take a live look at Capitol Hill this morning. Yes, it is still dark out there. The sun yet to come up. We expect the House GOP to reveal its tax and budget plan. The spending deadline is next month. And President Donald Trump told Republican senators on Friday night he wants it wrapped up.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: Why don't we just balance the budget? Why don't we cut certain things and balance the budget? Don't touch Social Security, don't touch Medicare. Medicare, just leave them alone. Now there are people that are illegally in there because we have a lot of illegal immigrants that have found their way in and we just can't do that. You just can't do it.

But just -- let's see if we can balance the budget. And they started and they started screaming and shouting and within about an hour, it was amazing what they -- they found 750 billion in the green new scam.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALKER: He also expressed confidence in his Cabinet picks while pressing for the rest of his candidates to get confirmed. Professor of government with the University of Essex, Natasha Linstadt is joining us now. Good morning, Natasha. Thank you so much for your time.

Let's start with those calls from President Trump to balance the budget. We're just five weeks away again from this government funding deadline. We're seeing tensions rise between Senate and House Republicans. You know, the Senate Republicans are saying that they want to take the lead on the budget bill. And then you have House Speaker Mike Johnson saying, no, we want to make the first move. Is Trump going to have to pick a side here?

NATASHA LINDSTAEDT, PROFESSOR OF GOVERNMENT, UNIVERSITY OF ESSEX: I think he actually loves that both the Republicans in the Senate and the House are competing for his attention and want to take a lead in the agenda. Of course, the agenda is something that is not going to balance the budget because part of this is to implement a huge tax cut, like the tax cuts that he implemented in 2017, which added billions and billions, of course, to the deficit. So that's one big part of the agenda.

Another big part is to have more money for immigration and to be able to engage in this implementation plan to get rid of some, deport some 11 million what they claim to be illegal immigrants. And that's going to require a lot of money.

So these two things are sort of competing against one another and it will be difficult to balance the budget, as he is saying. But I think both in the Senate and the House, he has very loyal party members who are willing to do whatever it takes. WALKER: So what kind of differences do you think we're going to see

between the Senate and House's repeating plans?

LINDSTAEDT: You know, I'm not sure what the key differences are going to be there. I think the House is a little bit more in disarray because they have a much slimmer margin. So it's more difficult for Mike Johnson to control the House members. And even just a few defections could torpedo a plan.

But one of the things that the Republicans have going for them is at the moment the Democrats seem to be flat footed. They seem to be caught off guard as to what they are supposed to do and how are they respond, how they should respond to any of these plans.

And we've seen them flat footed in the response to the confirmations. Many Democrats actually even voted to confirm some of these Republican, sorry, Trump nominated candidates. And you see that they're not slowing down the confirmation process.

They're not sounding the alarm and trying to get the public to be more outraged by what's happening. So either way, I think you have the Republicans trying to take advantage of the fact that the Democrats were really just not ready for the flood the zone tactic that Donald Trump has engaged in.

WALKER: Yes, let's talk about the Democrats then. And you know, Mike Johnson is already trying to blame Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries saying, you know, that he's trying to set up some sort of government shutdown. And here's Minority Leader Jeffries pushing on that notion yesterday. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. HAKEEM JEFFRIES (D) HOUSE MINORITY LEADER: We are working hard to reach a spending agreement that meets the needs of the American people in advance of March 14th.

[06:25:00]

I'm hopeful that Republicans are actually willing now to sit down at the table and reach a spending agreement in the best interest of the American people, not in the best interest of their billionaire donors.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALKER: Can't imagine Democrats are much in any mood to be striking a deal with Republicans as they're seeing, you know, Trump and Musk barreling through these federal agencies with these cuts. But how much leverage do Democrats have?

LINDSTAEDT: So they actually do have leverage if they could get united here and come up with a strategy. I think the problem that you have, some Democrats are deciding they want to compromise, they want to come up with deals, they want to be conciliatory. And then you have other Democrats that think that resistance would better if we take ourselves back to when Obama took power in 2009, the Republicans were united, an incredibly intense resistance effort torpedo any part of Obama's agenda.

And so because everything was failing in 2010, the Republicans actually did much better in those midterm elections. That would be my advice to the Democrats. If they want to win, of course, that's going to lead to all kinds of problems of governance, and there will be a lot of chaos and paralysis.

But if they want a chance to do well in the 2026 midterm, they should become more of a resistance party, and they need to be united behind these types of efforts.

WALKER: Let me ask you about what's been happening over the past few weeks. I know you're watching this. I'm sure you're talking about it with your students as well as we're seeing this, all the chaos and anger and confusion unfold, you know, as these cuts and buyouts take hold on the federal workforce.

A federal judge yesterday ordered or paused the deadline of this, was it 2,200 employees at the USAID from being put on administrative leave. There's been other decisions that have been made at the court level. I mean, this just goes to speak to, you know, many more legal challenges that will be ahead in relation to, you know, these disruptions.

LINDSTAEDT: Absolutely. And this is really important to talk about the role of resistance to the autocratization that's going on in the U.S. under the Trump administration right now. We're not seeing much resistance, of course, from the Republican Party. And I already laid out that the Democrats aren't really doing much. So really, the main source of resistance is coming from federal judges who are pressing against unconstitutional decision making.

Obviously, it's unconstitutional to interfere with the budget process that Congress has that allotted USAID its mandate. So if you look at the composition of federal judges. This is where the Democrats might have an advantage. There are 57% of the current federal judges were nominated by Democrats. And I think this is where you're going to see the most effective forms of resistance.

WALKER: We'll leave it there. Natasha Lindstaedt, thank you very much.

BLACKWELL: Still to come, three hostages held by Hamas since October 7th are back in Israel after being freed just a short time ago. But there's growing outrage over the condition they appear to be in when released. We're live in Tel Aviv with more. That's next.

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[06:30:00]

WALKER: President Trump is accused of bypassing congressional review to approve a $7 billion arms sale to Israel. Congressman Gregory Meeks says the Trump administration went ahead with the sale despite his unanswered questions as the leading Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Now, it comes just days after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin

Netanyahu met with President Trump at the White House. The House Foreign Affairs Committee has review powers along with its senatorial counterpart. The arms sale includes bombs as well as thousands of hellfire missiles.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CO-ANCHOR, CNN THIS MORNING WEEKEND: New this morning, Israel is denouncing the -- as they call it, shocking images of the three Israeli hostages who were released by Hamas just a few hours ago.

WALKER: We want to show you a look at the before and after pictures of Ohad Ben Ami, on the far left, Or Levy, in the middle, and Eli Sharabi, this is following their release there at the bottom. The three men freed were freed -- the three men were freed as part of the ceasefire agreement in the Israel-Hamas war.

BLACKWELL: A CNN Jerusalem correspondent Jeremy Diamond joins us now from Hostage Square in Tel Aviv, Israel. And shocking images of these men after 16 months now in captivity.

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that's exactly right. And we were here in Hostages Square as hundreds of people were watching on the large television screen above the stage as these men emerged from captivity. And initially, what we heard were -- was exactly what we've heard over the last several weeks, every single Saturday, which was cheers, applause, very moving scenes.

But then, you saw as it started to hit people what these three men actually looks like as they emerged from captivity. And then you saw far more pained looks on people's faces. And that is because of the condition in which these men have emerged after 491 days of captivity. All of them looking quite thin and frail.

I think the most shocking to many people here has been to see Eli Sharabi the difference in what he looked like pre-October 7th, before he was kidnapped from his home in Kibbutz Berry, and now seeing what he looks like after being released.

[06:35:00]

Nonetheless, this has still been a moment of joy for the families of those three men. As we saw the images of them watching as their loved ones emerged from a Hamas captivity. Now we have also just seen moments ago as 183 Palestinian prisoners and detainees were released from Israeli prisons in exchange for those three Israeli hostages, 18 of them serving life sentences.

According to officials, 111 of them, we should note, were detained in Gaza since October 7th by Israeli troops. We know, of course, that much of that has also involved mass detentions of Palestinians in Gaza, as Israeli troops have been in combat there, rounding up individuals who have not been charged or tried, we should note, since being detained.

We are also seeing, of course, scenes on the Palestinian side of people now greeting those individuals and some of those Palestinian prisoners as well, looking quite frail themselves. Victor, Amara.

WALKER: All right, Jeremy Diamond, thank you for your reporting. Still to come, ICE agents are under increasing pressure to boost the number of undocumented migrant arrests. The word on the tensions within the White House over this issue. That is next.

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[06:40:00]

BLACKWELL: U.S. Immigration officials are planning a crackdown on Los Angeles, targeting people living in the country unlawfully. A law enforcement source tells CNN the operation will happen this month, and it follows a pattern of recent enforcement actions in cities including Chicago and New York, targeting Democratic-led cities with sanctuary policies, limiting a cooperation with federal immigration authorities.

WALKER: The source tells CNN, ICE will have backup in Los Angeles from federal agencies, including the DEA and FBI. Now, since President Trump took office, federal immigration authorities have arrested more than 8,000 people.

BLACKWELL: However, senior White House officials say ICE still is not meeting its goals and are pushing for faster migrant arrests. CNN's Priscilla Alvarez has more.

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: As the White House touts the work of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and their arrests in the interior of the United States, behind the scenes, sources described to me tense phone calls with the federal agencies that are involved in this effort, but also with senior officials to include, for example, Stephen Miller; White House, border czar Tom Homan, and also Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.

The pressure is increasing for ICE to do more, to make more arrests. Of course, sources have told me that all of that is resource intensive and time intensive. Sometimes going after a particular target can include having to put together a big team as well as the time to identify and locate these persons.

Now, the Trump administration has pulled in multiple federal agencies to do this work, but all the same, there is a lot that goes on behind the scenes to ramp up arrests. And all the same, though, these agencies are meeting, mounting pressure from the White House to increase the numbers.

Now, the numbers that ICE has put out so far indicate that they are higher than they were under the Biden administration around 900 daily arrests compared to over the last year under the Biden administration, when it was around 300 arrests. Now, as that effort continues and is underway, there is also other policies that are being contemplated by Trump administration officials to further his immigration agenda.

That includes, for example, using additional military bases to house migrants who are arrested before they are deported as well as potentially conceptualizing a plan that would send African nationals to another country, very similar to what was struck with El Salvador, who agreed to take other nationalities.

All of this again, as Trump administration officials continue to push forward the President's agenda. Now, the Homeland Security Secretary also on Friday visited Guantanamo Bay, that is a place that they are assessing and continuing to build out the facilities there in an unprecedented move to have 30,000 migrants there before they are deported to their origin country.

Again, all of this underway as President Donald Trump directs his team to continue to push on his signature issue. Victor, Amara?

BLACKWELL: Priscilla Alvarez, thanks so much. Security in New Orleans is tight. The city is preparing to keep the Super Bowl and all the crowds safe. We'll have details about the measures that some people will see and the ones they will not see. After a break.

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[06:45:00]

WALKER: As you would expect, security is tight in New Orleans ahead of the Super Bowl tomorrow. President Trump is expected to attend the game, hundreds of armed police officials, street blockades, armored vehicles and drones are guarding the city.

BLACKWELL: The upgraded security measures come weeks after the new year's eve terror attack when a man drove a truck down a crowded Bourbon Street, killed 14 people. CNN's Ryan Young has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ERIC DELAUNE, SPECIAL AGENT IN CHARGE, HOMELAND SECURITY INVESTIGATIONS NEW ORLEANS: You're going to see drones, you're going to see helicopters. You're going to see boats in the river. You are going to see people on rooftops. Sniper teams.

RYAN YOUNG, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is the man spearheading Super Bowl security for the federal government.

DELAUNE: You will see more bollards in place. You'll see more temporary barricades in place. You'll see blast shields in some locations.

YOUNG: Homeland security investigators, the division that's leading coordination this year granted CNN access as they prepare for at least 700 federal officers to descend on the Big Easy.

(on camera): So, you guys have been training nonstop. What do you use a building like this one for?

DELAUNE: The entries are never the same. They learn how to navigate corners, and they learn how to navigate different pieces of furniture. These things test them in this environment where they can make mistakes and learn, so they can apply that to real world scenarios.

[06:50:00] YOUNG (voice-over): Security around the Super Bowl is always high,

but this year, there is an additional layer of concern after a lone attacker drove his truck down the city's beloved Bourbon Street in the early morning hours of new year's day, killing 14 people and injuring 35 others.

DELAUNE: But lone-wolf is hard to defend against. So, what do we do? We harden the places we can as best we can. We stay vigilant.

YOUNG (on camera): And we know there were IEDs put in coolers in that last attack. Luckily, they didn't go off.

DELAUNE: There will be checkpoints set up all over areas who will be on the look-out for those things. Our plans are very comprehensive, and all of our agents and law enforcement personnel, our K9 handlers, they're all ready for this event.

YOUNG: Fourteen crosses now mark the spot where so much tragedy happened here in New Orleans, and people have been showing up to pay their respects. While this has been going on, they've been getting ready for the Super Bowl. So, you see the access points have been choked, they've added more bollards to the system here.

This is a triple-layer of security. They have the sanitation truck. They have the two layers of security here, and these extra heavy gates that will stop anyone from getting on a sidewalk.

(voice-over): The agency has designated the game as a C-1 event in its special event assessment rating system, meaning it has the highest security tier assigned by federal authorities. Still back on Bourbon Street and across the city, the pride and excitement is palpable.

BARRY KERN, CEO, KERN STUDIOS AT MARDI GRAS WORLD: There's a reason why they've been here 11 times because this is the best place to do it. And everybody knows that the one thing that we do better than anything else is entertain people. Mardi Gras, for us, is like having two Super Bowls every year.

YOUNG (on camera): What stands out to you with the level of security that's here in New Orleans?

HELENA MORENO, NEW ORLEANS CITY COUNCIL: Not in my 15 years of public service in the city of New Orleans have I ever seen the level of security in the city like it is right now. Unprecedented. Not only from, you know, boots on the ground who are here in New Orleans, but also on the intelligence side.

We know that things are different because of what's happened here, but our culture and our city, the way that we feel about our city and the love that we have for our city, that still remains.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

YOUNG: Yes, Victor and Amara, the party still continues on Bourbon Street, but obviously, there's a lot of concerns about security. We've seen a ramp up especially when it comes to blocking off the road. Look behind me, you'll see Air National Guard members who are here, and also heavy barricades to stop any truck from getting down the street.

WALKER: All right, Ryan Young, thank you. And we will, of course, have a lot more on the Super Bowl with our Coy Wire next hour right here on CNN.

BLACKWELL: Winter alerts are in effect for about 90 million people from the Midwest to the northeast. The latest on the Winter storms expected to pummel the U.S. next.

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[06:55:00]

BLACKWELL: Ninety million people in the Midwest and the northeast are under Winter weather alerts this weekend. A storm moving across the country is now expected to bring ICE and sleet and snow.

WALKER: Yikes. This is the second of several storms expected to slam the eastern U.S. over the next two weeks. Meteorologist Allison Chinchar is here. You know, I didn't even realize we're still in Winter, considering it's been so warm here. But yes, those are some serious storms.

ALLISON CHINCHAR, METEOROLOGIST: And I think the key thing here is that these are going to be back-to-back-to-back with not much of a break in-between. So, look, people in the northeast are used to snow. It's not like they can't handle it. But you need that time in-between to clear the streets, clear your driveways, things like that.

And for some of them, they're just not going to get that. So, we take a look at where we are talking about this storm in particular. Today, the focus is going to be over the Midwest and sliding into the northeast. And you've already got some of that on the ground as we speak. You've got more snow headed into the Midwest, moving over portions of Wisconsin and Michigan a little bit farther down to the south.

You've got this part of the system now, it's got some rain, especially across portions of West Virginia, but the big concern here is also going to be ice. So, you've got a little bit of everything mixed in. So, you've got all of these Winter weather alerts, and it stretches pretty far from the Midwest, Great Lakes region all the way over into the northeast.

But here's the thing. As we go through the rest of the day, that system really starts to fill back in, you not only start to see more of that snow develop, but also the ice. And that's really going to be the key component, because no matter how safe you are, it is incredibly difficult to drive on ice.

Also, the one thing to note, it's still here for some areas in the northeast even by tomorrow morning. So, Boston for example, you're going to get some snow today, but you're also going to get that snow lingering tomorrow morning. But by tomorrow night, all of this system begins to finally exit. In total, most of these areas, especially in the northeast, about 2 to

5 inches of snow, but those higher elevations, especially the green and white mountains, not out of the question to get maybe half a foot or more of snow. And then the ice on the southern tier, that's going to be concerning. You're looking at a lot of places to get maybe up to a tenth of an inch, but there will be some spots, especially in Pennsylvania, between a quarter to even half an inch of ice.

That's not only devastating on roads, but that could also lead to trees down and some power outages, especially there. But then we start to see the multiple rounds. You've got another wave that comes through as we start off the week, another one by the middle of the week and another one to end the week. So, back-to-back-to-back systems are set to come in.

WALKER: A lot to handle, thanks Allison Chinchar --

BLACKWELL: Good news Chinchar is back, always with the good news, stay with us for this next story by the way.

WALKER: So, a man in France has been fined the equivalent of $200,000 for using his cell speaker-phone while at a train station. What?

BLACKWELL: Delicious.

WALKER: Didn't even know that this could happen. It happened, it was delicious. It happened on Sunday at the North Station in western France.

BLACKWELL: I love this. The man only identified as David told CNN affiliate, "WBFMTV" that he was speaking to his sister on loudspeaker while waiting for a train. He says he got a warning, but initially thought it was a joke. But he was then fined more for not paying it on the spot. He now has hired --

WALKER: Oh --

BLACKWELL: A lawyer to contest it. Now --

WALKER: On the spot.

BLACKWELL: So, yes, I don't agree so much with having to pay it on the spot --