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CNN This Morning

Federal Judge Orders Release Of Five-Year-Old Boy, Father; Judge Allows Operation Metro Surge To Continue In Minnesota; Crowds Gather Nationwide To Protest Trump's Immigration Crackdown; Trump Promises Aggressive Federal Response To Protect Government Property; Bomb-Cyclone Brings Most Snow In Decades To The Southeast; Snow Triggers Pile-Up On North Carolina Interstate; Ukraine's Energy Infrastructure Battered By Russian Strikes; Iran: U.S. Strike Would Result In A Regional War; Trump Weighing Major Military Strike Against Iran; USS Abraham Lincoln Strike Group Arrives In Arabian Sea. Trump Says He Had No Advance Knowledge Of Journalist's Arrest; "Melania" Documentary Opened This Weekend At Movie Theaters Across U.S.; Snow Triggers Pile-Up On North Carolina Interstate; Bomb Cyclone Brings Most Snowfall In Decades To Parts Of Southeast; 68th Grammy Awards Takes Place Tonight In Los Angeles. Aired 6-7a ET

Aired February 01, 2026 - 06:00   ET

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

[06:00:43]

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: Got a chance for a fresh start. It's a brand new day, a brand new week, a brand new month. Let's make it count. Welcome to CNN THIS MORNING. I'm Victor Blackwell.

Here's what we're working on for you. A federal judge has ordered a five-year-old boy and his father detained by ICE be released. What the judge wants to hear from DHS this week about that case.

Plus, parts of the East Coast are digging out from the heaviest snowfall they've seen in decades. But once you step outside today, it probably won't be the snow that hits you first.

We're now in day two of this partial government shutdown, and there are signs now that this could last longer than just a day or two.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. HAKEEM JEFFRIES (D-NY): We're going to need to see dramatic change as it relates to how the Department of Homeland Security operates moving forward.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: Tests that could determine when this partial shutdown will end.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MELANIA TRUMP, FIRST LADY OF THE UNITED STATES: Here we go again.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: "Melania," the documentary, hit theaters Friday. We're getting our first look at how it performed at the box office.

Plus, it is the biggest night in music. The Grammys get into the categories everybody's going to be talking about, and who's likely to take home one of those trophies.

All right. A federal judge ordered the release of a little boy and his father, who became flashpoints for ICE operations in Minnesota. Agents took five-year-old Liam Ramos and his father, Adrian, from their driveway and sent them to a Texas detention facility. They've been there for more than a week.

Let's go to CNN's Julia Vargas Jones. She's going to explain the other details in that order from the judge, from a protest in Los Angeles. Julia.

JULIA VARGAS JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Victor, that judge said not only that the government had to release Liam and his father by Tuesday, but they also had to file a report by Wednesday, basically to update the court on what they had done with the pair.

A reminder, DHS called Liam's father an illegal alien that they said had come from Ecuador. They said that Liam was taken with him at his father's wishes. But we have heard a slightly different story from a friend of the family that has been helping Liam's mother because when that iconic photo was taken, Victor, his mother was just inside the house, just steps away from him. And a big question that people have asked is, why didn't Liam get given passed over to his mother, basically.

Well, a friend of the family told CNN that agents tried to get Liam to knock on the door, and his mother was instructed by neighbors to not open the door. She is pregnant at the time. She also has a teenage son, this family friend told CNN. And she was terrified that she, too, would be detained if she opened the door.

Now, DHS denied using a child as what they said a bait for anyone, ever. But the lawyer for the family also says that Liam and his family came to the United States in December 2024 and presented themselves to border agents asking for asylum that they were following every single -- going to every single appointment and going -- following the law for asylum seekers that they were not a flight risk and they should have never been detained.

Now that story of this family and of Liam, in particular, is really resonating with people across the country. We've seen signs with Liam's face everywhere here in Los Angeles, where people are gathering in an anti-ICE protest. Of course, it's not only Liam's name. We're seeing Alex Pretti, the nurse who was killed at the hands of federal agents in Minneapolis as well. The name of Renee Good is coming up multiple times.

I do want you to listen, Victor, to just what one protester had to say when I told her that earlier on Saturday a judge had ordered the release of Liam and his father.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: Along with all the other judges that have told this administration what they need to do, they do not do any of it and nobody stops them. Nobody. And this is just a catastrophe for our country and our democracy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[06:05:04]

JONES: So too little, too late. That's a sentiment that has been echoed by other protesters here as well. They're saying more needs to be done.

There's a range of opinions. They go from, basically, we need to protect children, to abolish ICE. That's something we're seeing so many signs here in L.A. and across the country as these protests grow more and more momentum, Victor.

BLACKWELL: All right. Julia Vargas Jones, reporting from Los Angeles, thank you. A judge ruled Saturday that the controversial Operation Metro Surge can continue in Minnesota. The state, Minneapolis, Saint Paul, they sued federal officials last month and asked for a preliminary injunction to stop the operation immediately.

But in a ruling against the injunction, the judge wrote that plaintiffs showed the operation would continue to have profound consequences on the state. But she said that those harms must be balanced with the harms and injunction would pose to the federal government's efforts. Here's what DHS secretary Kristi Noem said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KRISTI NOEM, HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: And we're grateful when a court sees that that the right thing has been done. We'll continue to focus on getting dangerous criminals, murderers, and rapists, and drug traffickers out of this country and bringing them to justice. We're going to continue to try to work with the local law enforcement and the leadership in Minnesota to do that, to make that community safer.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: The judge also said in her ruling plaintiffs were not likely to convince anyone that the Trump administration was violating the 10th Amendment, either. That establishes that the division of powers between state and federal government.

The judge's ruling in Minnesota came as protests against ICE continued across the country. Look at this video. It shows thousands of people marching for the second straight day against the Trump administration's crackdown. In Los Angeles, as we just heard from Julia, you can see the protesters with signs expressing their anger at federal enforcement actions. At this demonstration in Austin, Texas, some protesters called for a change in enforcement policy. And others, like those in Minneapolis, participated in a memorial bike ride to honor Alex Pretti. He's -- was the avid cyclist and ICU nurse killed by the federal immigration agents. Federal authorities say immigration enforcement actions keep the public safe.

New this morning, President Trump said that he will be speaking with law enforcement today. That meeting will include DHS Secretary Noem and border czar Tom Homan. Last night aboard Air Force One, he addressed the backlash to ICE's immigration enforcement strategy in Democrat run cities.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: If they want help, they have to ask for it. Because if we go in, all they do is complain. But if they want help, they can ask for it and they're going to need help.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: Trump said there will be an aggressive federal response to protect government property if damaged by protesters. This morning, that powerful bomb-cyclone is churning off the southeast coast. It's whipping up hurricane force winds and burying some communities under the most snow they've seen in decades.

More than 150,000 customers across the south are without power, and so far there have been hundreds of car accidents on those icy roads. A section of Interstate 85, just north of Charlotte, has reopened after a crash left drivers stranded for hours. Areas like Charlotte may be used to a light dusting, but the sheer volume of snow is catching a lot of people off guard.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If they get seven, eight inches, that's going to be more than we've ever seen, I believe. I love snow, but I'd rather go to the mountains and see it than seeing it in Charlotte.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: Yes, it's better to visit than having to come into your house. The snow isn't the only thing causing the conditions to be dangerous. Those freezing temperatures are overtaking the south. Dangerously cold wind chills are making the temperatures feel like they're below zero in some areas.

Those frigid temperatures stretching as far south as central Florida. We're going to go to Virginia now to see CNN's Derek Van Dam at Virginia Beach. Looks a little windy out there. How are the conditions?

DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Victor, people in Virginia Beach and all along the coastal areas of North and South Carolina are going to wake up to a rare sight, snow on the beaches of the Carolinas and Virginia. That's saying something.

This storm has been absolutely brutal for a while there last night. We thought it wasn't going to snow here in Virginia Beach, and then it came on and it came on with a vengeance. We had tropical storm force winds that were whipping between the buildings that we had here, 51 mile per hour wind gusts reported in Virginia Beach, upper 50s with the wind gusts right along the outer banks into Nags Head.

What this does is it creates these little mini vortices around these buildings. So I was walking out here last night, and we saw these little brief, what we call a snownado spin up in the ground. It's like a wintertime version of a of a dust devil, but just taking advantage of the buildings and creating those little quick spin ups of snow.

[06:10:07]

That gives you an idea just how windy it actually is and how windy it still is because of the bomb-cyclone that is now departing off of the North Carolina coast. There's this very tight, what we call a pressure gradient helping funnel in the winds, and it's actually coinciding with a high tide that's occurring this morning at about 7:06. So, roughly an hour from now.

So, we'll go scope out the coastline. The National Weather Service has coastal flood advisories in place for one to two feet of coastal inundation in some of those vulnerable areas in and around the Chesapeake Bay.

I want to get to the graphics because you want to just see how expansive the cold is. We still have 16 million people with winter storm alerts into the Carolinas, but it's the cold now that we're going to start focusing on, because we never got a rest from what happened last weekend with the previous winter storm, it really locked in and reinforced all these impacts that are now frozen to the ground.

I mean, the roads out here, even though the crews are working their hardest to clear them off. They're slick. There's areas of black ice. I can see it right now with my own eyes. And the radar largely tells a story of a snow event coming to an end. But the wind does not falter.

In fact, we've still got several more hours of that onshore northeasterly push as this very powerful low pressure system scrapes the entire eastern seaboard. By the way, in Nantucket, the coastal cape area, you can still have gusts over 50 miles per hour today with some snow as well, but not a major storm for their stretches. But look, it's still impactful.

And right along the outer banks, that's where some of the greatest impacts from this powerful bomb-cyclone, which officially is a bomb- cyclone now because it met the criteria overnight. We're going to watch out for all of its impacts, including the cold air that is as far south, Victor, get this, as Miami-Dade County with hard freeze warnings in place for that area. Even cold alerts for portions of the Florida Keys, coldest they've seen since 2010. So, let that sink in.

BLACKWELL: Yes, I know they're feeling it. They're not used to it. Listen, from every city official and county official, I've spoken with, the biggest concern is for people to stay off those roads. I'm glad you gave them the reminder that black ice out there in these temperatures. Derek Van Dam, get inside, and get some more. Thanks so much. We'll check back later.

All right. New developments this morning in the Russia-Ukraine peace talks. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy just announced when the next round of those meetings will happen. We have the latest for you on that coming up.

Plus, the partial government shutdown could drag on. How GOP resistance could stall the funding bill when it comes up for a vote this week. And we just heard from the Democratic leader in the house.

Also, music's biggest night. It's here coming up later. Who is expected to shine at the Grammys tonight?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:17:33]

BLACKWELL: Second round of trilateral peace talks between Ukraine and Russia. They were scheduled for today in Abu Dhabi, but they've been pushed back a few days.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has delayed. He says the delay is needed because President Trump is too focused right now on tensions with Iran.

Now, Russia has been targeting Ukraine's energy structure in recent weeks, leaving thousands without heat, the bitter cold. The Kremlin appears to have paused those strikes at the request of President Trump.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PRESIDENT VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINE (through translator): The situation is most difficult in Kyiv. There is a significant heating deficit, almost 3,500 buildings in different districts are without heating. The city authorities, municipal services and energy workers promised to correct the heating situation as much as possible by tomorrow morning, but the pace must be faster.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: CNN's Larry Madowo has been tracking the latest developments for us. Larry, what do we know about the talks?

LARRY MADOWO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Victor, we were expecting the second round of these talks to take place in the UAE capital in Abu Dhabi after the first round last weekend. They've now been pushed back a few days.

A short while ago, President Zelenskyy tweeting this to confirm, our negotiating team just delivered a report. The dates for the next trilateral meetings have been set February 4 and five. That's Wednesday and Thursday next week.

Ukraine is ready for a substantive discussion, and we are interested in ensuring that the outcome brings us closer to a real and dignified end to the war. Thank you to everyone who is helping.

That is President Zelenskyy updating on what will happen next. The first round of talks attended by three sides. They both -- they all described it as constructive. So, this will be building on that.

But President Zelenskyy has also been talking about the effect of Russia trying to cut off communities and cities from each other by this bombardment of the infrastructure, really across Ukraine. And this morning, also, President Zelenskyy gave an update. He says that in January alone, Russia launched more than 6,000 attack drones against Ukraine. Around 1,500 guided aerial bombs and 158 missiles out of various types.

And this is coming as Ukraine is dealing with an unseasonably cold winter. It's supposed to be in the minus -- double digit minus Celsius and Fahrenheit today. That is why there was a request from President Trump to delay some of those attacks on the energy infrastructure, because a lot of people have been left without heating, without power in thousands of homes when they see going through this really difficult winter that's expiring today.

[06:20:10]

So, it's not clear. The Russians have not confirmed if they will continue this bombardment against cities like Kyiv and other parts of the country. But that's been the backdrop for these talks that are going on. Many in Ukraine impatience to see where they will go. And President Zelenskyy saying this is why it's important to protect the skies against these Russian attacks, Victor.

BLACKWELL: Larry Madowo, thank you for the reporting. We're just getting this in to CNN. Iran's Ayatollah Khamenei is warning that any U.S. strike on Iran would result in a regional war. And President Trump currently is weighing a major military strike against Iran.

The USS Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group is now in the northern Arabian Sea after a week's long military buildup that includes near constant surveillance flights and cargo drops at U.S. bases.

With me now is Behnam Ben Taleblu. He is the senior director of the Iran Program at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Welcome to the show.

Let me start here with, looking for some context here around this new threat of any U.S. strike would lead to a regional war. We know one of the considerations or the concerns is the range of Iran's ballistic missiles, certainly of Israel. Give us some context around what we're hearing from the ayatollah.

BEHNAM BEN TALEBLU, SR. DIR., FOUNDATION FOR DEFENSE OF DEMOCRACIES IRAN PROGRAM: Well, great to be with you. No doubt the Islamic Republic of Iran actually has the military muscle to still be able to punch back against U.S. bases in the region, against shipping in the region, and even against further afield targets in the region such as Israel. And that is because despite being weak, this regime is still lethal. It is still home to the largest ballistic missile arsenal in the Middle East. And both in January 2020 and June 2025, in Trump term one, in Trump term two, the Islamic republic did use overt military force, meaning ballistic missiles against a conventionally superior adversary, meaning here the United States of America.

So, the latest statement by the Iranian so-called supreme leader ayatollah Ali Khamenei here is quite significant because now he is weighing in after a whole host of political officials and a whole host of religious officials and a whole host of military officials earlier this week threatened that even if the U.S. strike Iran in a limited fashion to defend the red line due to the massive crackdown from state against society, the 36,000 plus crackdown after about three and a half weeks of Iranian protests, if that red line was defended, that the Islamic republic would even treat a limited attack as a potentially wider attack. And therefore this recent comment by the country's commander-in-chief is significant.

BLACKWELL: What we heard from the president last night on Air Force One is that Iran is, quote, "seriously" talking to the U.S. The secretary general of Iran's National Security Council posted on social media, I think we can put it up, contrary to the artificial media war atmosphere, the formation of a structure for negotiations is in progress.

What's the viability of talks between the U.S. and Iran? Is history the best guide here, considering current variables?

TALEBLU: I don't necessarily think history is the best guide here. In fact, you see the Islamic republic, 47 years old, a regime that has chanted death to America, death to Israel for 47 years, now having senior officials like this bragging about some kind of indirect back- channel negotiations with a country that they have been, you know, chanting death to America to for quite some time.

So that in itself is unique, but I don't think there is any diplomatic off ramp to be had here. That's the real question or the challenge for the Trump administration. The red line that President Trump drew once, twice, actually eight or nine times if you count throughout the month of January, had nothing to do with the nuclear issue, had nothing to do with Iran's ballistic missiles. It was entirely about holding the regime accountable for the crackdown against protesters which led to, again, 36 000 plus dead.

And now to seek a nuclear deal or a nuclear off ramp off the back of those 36,000 dead, that doesn't jive with who the U.S. is. That doesn't jive with the morals or the ethos or even the necessary strategy of a country like the United States of America. And worse, it might invite more Iranian crackdown of protesters and killing in jails which we believe is still ongoing.

BLACKWELL: OK, so if there is no diplomatic off ramp and we know that as just -- I just said, the Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group is now in the Arabian Sea. Iran announced several days of military drills of their own.

I want to read for you this line that I read in my colleague Nick Paton Walsh's latest write about the options for the president. It just stood out to me. He starts it with, it is a bubble gum foreign policy, one where the quick hit of flavor is the goal rather than chewing a sticky mess for hours.

So in that context, what's likely from the U.S.? I mean, we saw what happened in Venezuela. We saw, of course, the scope of the attacks on Iran's nuclear program last year.

[06:25:04]

What do you expect from the U.S.?

TALEBLU: Well, this is actually where I do think history is a guide, particularly recent history. I can't comment on bubble gum, but I think this might be interesting with respect to Machiavelli, who talks about public violence as needing to satisfy and stupefy.

If you look at President Trump's military operations, there is an ability to satisfy and stupefy, to deter and to awe at the same time. And the trend line through all of the military activity that the Trump administration authorized in term one and in term two, that the through line through all of that is short, sharp and decisive. And the real challenge the Islamic republic is posing here is that it's trying to undo the image or the option of a limited war.

So, certainly the Trump administration is going to be looking through options here. And one reason that I think there has been a delay in decision making is to try to figure out how to nest even the use of military force into a larger political win. And President Trump has said previously his end game is to win, but we're struggling to find out right now politically what does winning look like.

I have my views as a first generation Iranian American. There's no way out but through with this regime. You know, the longest suffering victims of this regime are the Iranian people. There are alternatives. The question is, to what degree is President Trump willing to explore those alternatives?

And the challenge here for America and American strategy is to what degree will there be economic pressure, diplomatic pressure and military force all together to help achieve some of those alternatives? And that lack of clarity, it does keep the adversary guessing. That's true. That's good. But it also keeps allies in the dark.

And also, you know, Iranians are a highly nationalistic population, I'll tell you that. But all their eyes are looking abroad right now, trying to figure out what the president is going to do. Will he defend that red line, and will he come to their aid?

BLACKWELL: And the president has also said that he's not going to tell some of those Gulf state allies the plan. It wouldn't be any good to tell them what he's planning to do. Behnam Ben Taleblu, thanks so much for the insight.

TALEBLU: Thank you.

BLACKWELL: Next, a showdown over immigration enforcement. Chicago's mayor issues a new executive order against ICE. We'll break down what it means.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:31:34]

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: There's some new indicators that the federal government may now be shut down past Monday. House leaders had planned to vote on a funding deal when they came back tomorrow after the Senate passed the bill Friday.

But sources now tell CNN the Democrats will not help Republicans fast track the bill in the House. They don't want DHS funding in the bill. Speaker Mike Johnson is not sure he has enough Republican votes to move it forward alone. And until changes are made, the partial shutdown could drag on.

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson signed an executive order telling city police to document and report alleged misconduct by ICE and Border Patrol. He says Chicago will not stand by while federal agents target residents or break state laws.

The order requires officers to preserve body cam video, identify federal supervisors, and refer possible felonies to local prosecutors. DHS denies any wrongdoing and police union rep dismissed the order as, quote, political blustering.

New this morning, President Trump says he was not giving a heads up about the arrest of independent journalists and former CNN anchor Don Lemon.

Lemon is one of two independent journalists arrested and indicted in connection with a church protest in St. Paul, Minnesota, last month. The two journalists were live streaming when an anti-ICE protest broke out at the church. They're charged with a federal conspiracy and allegedly interfering with churchgoers' right to worship.

Last night, Trump said that he did not know in advance of the federal charges against Lemon, and then Trump personally attacked him.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF UNITED STATES: I don't know anything about the Don Lemon thing, but he's a sleazebag. Everyone's known that. He's a washout.

Probably from his standpoint, the best thing that could happen to him, he's getting, you know, he had no viewers. He had -- he was a failure. He was a failed host. And now he's -- he's in the news --

(END VIDEO CLIP) BLACKWELL: All right, joining me now to discuss is CNN's chief media analyst, Brian Stelter. Stelter, good to see you.

The arrest of Don Lemon and Georgia Fort, understandably drew outrage from journalism groups. What -- what are you hearing now?

BRIAN STELTER, CNN CHIEF MEDIA ANALYST (on-camera): Yes. Yes. Number one, by the way, Don Lemon, not a failure. Let's just get that out of the way. President Trump is smearing Lemon by saying that when you look at what Lemon's built in the last couple of years, after he was terminated by CNN, he went off to YouTube, Instagram, he's built a really big platform for himself on social media.

And I want to acknowledge that Lemon is a very prominent independent reporter now. He was out there in L.A. this weekend because he was playing on covering the red carpet at the Grammys tonight. So let me get that out of the way.

I've spent the weekend, Victor, talking with media lawyers, as well as First Amendment experts. And it is very clear, these are going to be very hard charges for the government to actually prove. That's in part because the charges are being used in a very rare, unusual way. You know, the use of this 1994 law, the FACE Act, usually used involving medical clinics in the U.S., to use this law against journalists, incredibly unusual. And here's what Gabe Rotman told me of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. He said, to our knowledge, it's unprecedented for the Justice Department to deploy the federal laws cited in this case against journalistic activity.

So, it's a very high bar for the government. It's going to be a real challenge, most likely, to prosecute both Lemon and Georgia Fort.

But here's the question mark. And I think this question might answer itself. Is this case about winning for the government, or is it about trying to chill journalism? I suspect it is the latter.

[06:35:05]

The conclusion I'm hearing from media law experts and from free speech groups is it's the latter. It's about trying to intimidate and harass journalists. But all weekend long, we've also been hearing one other big takeaway, and that is that reporters are not going to be deterred. The journalists are not going to be deterred from covering protests or documenting what's going on in this country.

So, it's a very interesting moment. I know a lot of people think there's a chill in the air, but there's only a chill in the air if we let ourselves get cold. I think the answer is put on another layer and keep reporting, Victor.

BLACKWELL: Yes, and certainly Georgia Fort and Don Lemon have said that they will not be intimidated. They're going to continue to do the work --

STELTER (on-camera): Yes, that's right.

BLACKWELL: -- that they have been doing.

Let me ask you about Melania, The Movie opened on Friday, huge budget --

STELTER (on-camera): Yes.

BLACKWELL: -- huge promotional budget as well. Red carpet attended by some MAGA figures. What do you know about how it performed at the box office?

STELTER (on-camera): This documentary is a big success. We're going to get official numbers from Amazon later this morning.

But already, according to the projections that are circulating in the film industry, this is the number one documentary in terms of box office ticket sales in about a decade. And Melania herself already celebrating this on the social media platform X this weekend. The First Lady posted saying it's the number one highest opening in 10 years with an A cinema score.

Cinema score is a rating system that sometimes you might leave a movie and when you leave the theater, you might get asked to review it. And that review goes into this system and it gives a letter grade for films. A is, of course, as high as you can get. That means people who chose to go and see the documentary really did enjoy it. And that's because this documentary is another example of the red blue divide. We've seen ticket sales be a whole heck of a lot stronger in more Republican stronghold areas than we have in big blue cities. And that was to be expected.

However, this $8 million figure that we're expecting to hear later today, this is higher than many box office experts had expected or had predicted. Maybe they were thinking it was going to underperform even more severely in liberal or blue areas than it actually did.

But here's the thing about this film, because it is so unusual that Amazon paid so much money for it, so many tens of millions of dollars, it's been likened to a bribe. This film had such a huge marketing budget that it's not surprising that it did well at the box office. And $8 million is not going to help the film actually break even.

This film costs almost $80 million for Amazon to release and market. So, it's going to take a long time for Amazon to ever recoup the costs of this documentary.

BLACKWELL: All right, Brian Stelter. Thank you. Enjoy the Sunday.

All right, a bomb cyclone slams the southeast coast, bringing the most snowfall in two decades to some areas.

Now the concern goes from snow to cold. How low some of those temperatures will go. That's next.

And if you're heading out, remember, you can stream my show from anywhere in the U.S. right on the CNN app. You can also go to CNN.com/Watch. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:42:33]

BLACKWELL: This morning, more than 160,000 customers are without power as this winter storm slams the southeast. Mississippi has the most outages with more than 58,000 customers in the dark.

The storm system is still dropping heavy snow and driving winds, and North Carolina has seen some of the highest totals, 16 inches in High Rock.

CNN's Dianne Gallagher is in Charlotte. Dianne?

DIANNE GALLAGHER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on-camera): Victor, we haven't seen snow like this in Charlotte, North Carolina in more than 20 years, and it is still coming down. The winds are very intense, and these big fat snowflakes just kind of slap you in the face.

Look, there are concerns, of course, about roads and safety, and just from midnight to noon, North Carolina Highway Patrol says that more than 340 collisions were reported to them in that 12-hour period on Saturday, and that is before the intense snow began kicking in.

What they want to see people do instead of being in their cars is this right here. Check out all of these Charlottians in Cordelia Park, taking whatever they could find in their home, be it a cookie sheet, a cardboard box, a pizza box, pool floats. We've got storage bins out here to go down one of the best hills in the city. It's been really heartwarming, because that's the only warm thing right now here in Charlotte, to see everyone out here with their friends and families laughing and having a good time.

And this is what the governor of North Carolina, Josh Stein, asked people to do. If you can walk somewhere and enjoy the snow, do that. Wait until later in the week to try and drive, because they are still experiencing in some areas ice that has remained on the roads from the ice storm that affected so much of the south just last weekend.

And so, they have tried to do treatments on the roads. They did brine treatments, about two and a half million gallons of that before the storm hit. They've done about 5,500 tons of salt at the beginning of the storm to try and keep the roads clear, but Victor, that is their main concern. They don't want this to turn deadly. They want to see scenes like this where people are enjoying themselves instead of turning this into something tragic across the state.

BLACKWELL: All right, Dianne Gallagher there in Charlotte, thank you.

Back with me now, CNN's Derek Van Dam. He's in Virginia Beach.

Give us a sense of what it feels like and what you're seeing out there this morning. And put the gloves on, man. Keep the gloves on.

[06:45:05] DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST (on-camera): I know. I can't operate my technology with these gloves. It just doesn't work. The two do not match together.

We're doing our hardest. We're in a winter storm, man.

BLACKWELL: I got it. I got it.

VAN DAM (on-camera): Come one. Look, people are going to be waking up to some -- some unusual sites this morning. That's -- that's what I was just checking on.

I saw a National Weather Service report that there were snow flurries in the Tampa Bay region this morning. So that's unusual, right? Not unprecedented, but we'll call it rare in the Hillsborough area and Pinellas County. So, yes, that's going to be interesting.

We're going to see once the sunlight starts coming up snow covering beaches, which we kind of often associate with, you know, drinking, you know, a cocktail by a poolside. Well, not today. Today is going to be a bitterly, bitterly cold because we still have over 200 million Americans with this cold alerts that stretch as far south as the upper Florida Keys, including a hard freeze for Miami-Dade County. That's just insane.

So what we have right now is the powerful low-pressure system. We call it a bomb cyclone. It met that criteria last night. It dropped over 24 millibars in a 24-hour period. That's the criteria. It occurred bomb cyclone, bombogenesis. And you know what? It's exiting out to sea. That's probably what you need to know about that little factoid.

But the point is that the snow is going to end with it. But the wind and the driving cold is going to continue behind it. And that is going to cause the potential, at least for some whiteout conditions for the next couple of hours, especially over the coastal areas, outer banks into Morehead City, perhaps into Wilmington and Virginia Beach where I'm at. It'll brush the Cape by Massachusetts later today.

But the winds right now, Victor, are coinciding with an exaggerated high tide cycle. So we're going to go investigate what the Atlantic Ocean is doing right now because there's a coastal flood advisory for one to two feet of inundation in some of these vulnerable areas near Virginia Beach.

BLACKWELL: Derek, is that a fountain behind you?

VAN DAM (on-camera): Yes. Oh, you mean the elephant in the room?

BLACKWELL: Yes. What is that?

VAN DAM (on-camera): Yes, that's -- forgot to mention that. That is a fountain that is completely encased in ice. Somebody left the faucet on last night and it is rock solid. They were trying to take a blowtorch to this thing yesterday to get the ice off. Unsuccessful.

It continues to accumulate. And I mean, the little bit of water that's actually trickling off of this fountain is getting sprayed up because of the winds that we are experiencing right now in Virginia Beach.

But yes, that's just a testament to how cold it is here across the coast.

BLACKWELL: Feels like three degrees. Derek Van Dam, we'll check back. Thank you very much.

All right. Next, the glitz, the glamour, the golden trophies. What you can expect from the Grammys tonight, after the break.

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[06:52:11]

BLACKWELL: 68th Grammy Awards kick off tonight in Los Angeles. Some of the nominees already making history with or without a win. And tonight's show will be a final farewell to the network that's hosted it for decades.

Joining me now is music producer for -- a music reporter for the Associated Press, Maria Sherman. Maria, good morning to you.

So, let's talk first about the history made because several are.

MARIA SHERMAN, MUSIC REPORTER, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS: Yes, there's a lot of potential history making moments and some, as you said, that have already happened. I think the album of the year category is a great place to start. This year we have three rap albums up for album of the year, which is unprecedented. That's, of course, Kendrick Lamar, who leads the nominations, Clipse and Tyler, The Creator. If either any of them win, it will be only the third time a rap album has won the top prize at the Grammys.

And, you know, it's the 68th annual Grammy Awards. It seems like there should be quite a few more than that. Also, an album of the year is, of course, Bad Bunny's Debi Tirar Mas Fotos. It's only the second all Spanish language album to be nominated for the top prize. So if he wins, I think there's going to be a lot of partying that happens after the fact, and it would certainly tee up his Super Bowl halftime performance the following weekend really well.

We see a bunch of K-Pop nominations this year with Rose and Bruno Mars, APT. and, of course, the inescapable Golden from K-Pop Demon Hunters. If either of those songs when it will be the first time K-Pop wins a Grammy Award.

So, there's -- there's a lot going on. There's a -- there's a lot of reasons to tune in tonight.

BLACKWELL: Yes, also something new for the best new artist category feature of those nominees.

SHERMAN: Yes, it's a real incredible diversity of talent this year, and all eight nominees in the best new artist category are going to be performing at the Grammys in a medley. That doesn't happen all of the time, but whenever it does, it's really something to watch out for kind of showcasing the future of music in these new talents.

And it's really, it's one to watch for sure. The last eight years of female soloist has one best new artist. We'll see if that trend continues. If a band like The Marias or a group of KATSEYE wins, it'll be the first time since 2013 that a group wins.

So, there's a lot of reasons to -- to expect greatness from -- from them as well.

BLACKWELL: Kendrick Lamar is the most nominated artist this year, but last year he's -- I believe swept all five categories. He was nominated for -- for not like us.

I wonder, does -- the success last year hurt him this year?

SHERMAN: That I think speaks to a great conflict and something really enjoyable about the Grammys this year, which is that it's going to be a very competitive award show.

In the past, sometimes it feels like you could maybe predict a little bit of who's going to take home some of these awards. This year, you really can't. And last year really felt like it was Kendrick Lamar's year. I mean, as you mentioned, Not Like Us won record and song of the year. And then he, of course, had his victory lap at the Super Bowl the following weekend.

[06:55:21]

It'll be hard to say. GNX has a great potential of winning album of the year, but he'll have to be Lady Gaga with Mayhem, which is seen as a kind of return to form for her. For those of us who miss those Bad Romance days, it really is a kind of a victory lap for her as well. And once again, Bad Bunny. And I think, you know, he's the most streamed artist globally. It's hard to compete with that as well.

BLACKWELL: Yes. And a lot of those Latin Grammy voting members, all of them actually were invited to the Recording Academy last year. So, we'll see if that influences voting.

Maria Sherman, thank you so much for being with us. We'll all be watching tonight.

Coming up, the Rafah Crossing has reopened for the first time in nearly two years. The significance of that, coming up in the next hour.

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