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tv   Anderson Cooper 360  CNN  December 29, 2016 5:00pm-6:01pm PST

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>> cruel, cruel year when you put it all together like that, jane. >> it is amazing. >> really is. thank you so much. appreciate it. don't worry guys, it is almost over. i mean the year. and the show. thank you so much for joining us everybody. ac 360 starts right now. good evening. when asked about the u.s. intelligence assessment that russian spies hacked american computers, tampered with u.s. presidential election, donald trump said we should all just get on with our lives. he said that last night. today president obama said no, let's not. i'm gjim sciutto sitting in agan tonight for andersen and that is the story tonight. the white house unleashing sanctions on russia, as well as high-ranking kremlin figures, bouncing diplomats and shedding a pair of russian compounds in the u.s. and now late tonight the president elect who has been so relukt about blaming anyone for the hacking is speaking out again. we're joined for the latest on what the president elect is
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doing and the current president is doing in response to this. so what did president obama have to say about why he took these actions now? >> well this extraordinary set of sanctions president obama says was in response to not only the meddling in the u.s. election but also to months of harassing of the u.s. diplomats in russia. the president said in a statement, "these actions follow repeated, private and public warnings that we've issued to the russian government and are a necessary and appropriate response to efforts to harm u.s. interests in violation of established international norms of behavior. he also added the u.s. will take additional actions that will not be publicized. that jim is a reference to possible convert retaliations that we may never know about. >> it's been more than two and a half months since the intelligence community fingered russia are for being behind these attacks. why now? why is president obama taking action now? >> well exactly and as you know this is something that's been
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debated among folks in the administration for months and even democrats were being critical of the president for not doing more publicly. the president elect has not only been openfully skeptical of the intelligence information that the russians were doing this he's said he wants to turn the page to better relations with moscow. has unlikely he would take any of these actions once he takes off. >> so the question is what does he do with the sanctions in place? could president elect trump easily turn them around? reverse them? >> absolutely. these are presidential orders. so yes, president trump can with the stroke of a pen role all of this back. administration officials today told reporters that doing that would be highly unusual but there is also the fact that members of congress, including republican leaders today endorsed president obama's actions. they also criticized president obama for not doing some of it
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sooper and some promise that coop will take its own actions, perhaps making sanctions tougher to roll back.ner and some promi coop will take its own actions, perhaps making sanctions tougher to roll back. >> and more tonight. "it is time for our country to move on to bigger and better things, nevertheless in the interest of our country and its greats people i'll meet with leaders of the intelligence community next week in order to be updated on the facts of this situation." that's all. suzan suzan suzanne joins us. what did he have to say about the sanctions? >> reporter: there are two aspects of this. one is political that. trump and his transition team believed there were people on the left trying to undermine or discredit trump's big win. and that is driving this.
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and trump a's called the accusations that russia is behind this as ridiculous. just another excuse for delegitimatizing his victory. and spicer also says that in the u.s. has clear evidence that russia interfered with the election it should be pout publicly for all to see. they need further facts or every day that this is actually true. as, you know, trump gets its daily intelligence briefings three times a week. so certainly the intelligence community would argue they presented him with all the information he needs. earlier this week we saw trump injecting more skepticism saying computers have complicated lives more greatly. saying the whole age of computers has made it where nobody knows exactly what's going on. we have speed a lot of things but not the security we needs. so the emphasis is on cybersecurity and not retaliating against russia. >> it is also frankly on muddying the waters here.
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the fact is u.s. intelligence community has identified north korea as being behind the sony attack. china being behind previous cyberhacks. so it really seems that there is a wide spread and really increasingly isolated effort by the trump camp. because many republicans have come out and said in fact really the vast majority of republicans have come out and said russia is behind this. what does the trump samp r camp say to defend that? >> one of his top advisors, kellyanne conway, telling cnn this evening that what they are seeing in president obama's final days is this toughness out the door that people hadn't seen before with the sanctions against israel and now russia. so read between the lines there. she said some of these moves the white house is making is largely symbolic. and again, that partisans are trying to fight the election war 52 days later. here is how she put it. >> all we heard all through the election was russia russia russia. whenever it came to anything
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donald trump said or did it seemed most days and now since the election it is just this fever pitch of accusations and insinuations. to. it would be very unfortunate if politics were the motivating factor here but we can't help but think that is often true. >> and jim, previously trump had said he does not believe sanctions against russia when the annex crimea actually worked he called it useless. that is something that he might consider actually reversing. he's not made a comment either way whether or not he would reverse these sanctions. >> shock shock that politics could possibly be involved in washington. suzanne malveaux, thank you very much. during the cold war both sides lived by newton's third law. every opposition produces an equal and opposition reaction.
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expel a diplomat and expect one of yours to be sent packing. so what are we expecting to moscow's response? matthew chance is there in moscow tonight and joins us with the latest. matthew, what is the kremlin saying they are planning to do and have they taken any steps yet? >> reporter: in terms of what they are planning to do the kremlin have been pretty tight-lipped. obviously reciprocal actions that you just mentioned are the only things that count in a situation like this. so they are giving the sense that there are going to be u.s. dploomts potentially facing expulsion as well. they haven't officially announced anything. i've heard from the foreign ministry any kind of first announcements will come through tomorrow morning local time. it is the middle of the night at the moment so they are not saying anything. the final decision will be made with vladimir putin and that's been made clear as well and he's not in any rush according to the
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kremlin to make that decision. whether he's going to hold back in the donald trump takes the white house or act sooner remains to be soon in terms of the expulsions. we are hearing from a source in washington there have been some measures already announced or that at least the american side has been informed of some measures. one of them is the closure to u.s. -- foreign citizen, u.s., canadian and british citizens of the angelo american school. which is the main expatriot school in moscow. it would be a kind of a sideswipe. i've spoken to the principle tonight. he can't confirm it. but if it turns out to be the case, then that would be a real sideswipe to the diplomatic community here. particularly the united states, many of whom have family people send their children to a school like that. could be clarified in the morning. >> enormously disruptive for families. when the anti-corruption act was passed here. russian suspended adoptions by
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americans so a tactic used before. thanks very much. perspective now in former assistant secretary at the department of homeland security and a veteran at the cia. author of the recent piece for the washington post titled why the cia don't public with evidence of the russia's hacking and gale daughtery. >> steve, if i could start with you. your reaction to the actions announced day. you were concerned that naming names, even making intelligence findings could be costly for the cia and fbi and the battle here for u.s. intelligence is that this is secret stuff, right and it reveals sources and methods. it reveals access that you have inside russian systems. so there is only so much that you can lift the veil. >> yes. this seems to be the first step that the administration is taking now to respond to
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these -- to the russian hacks. it seems to be sort of break down into three different categories. the sanctions against the fsb which is would have been the civilian intelligence service asks in the gru. run of the military intelligence services. [inaudible] -- of the 35 diplomats that will be removed here from washington. i would be shocked if something like that didn't happen to our diplomats in moscow. i think what you are seeing is the first stage of this now. >> and that has cost, does it not? what we're talk about t russian diplomats leaving here but really the understanding is they are intelligence operatives. and any country like this it is understood there are spies on the ground. declared and undeclared. and assuming spies from russia are sent packing as well that could have an enormous impact on
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u.s. intelligence gathering inside russia. >> as you might imagine, given the sensitivity of the intelligence collection and what happens in moscow and russia i'm not at much at liberty to talk that. but i can say that the removal of 35 diplomat, whether it is russian diplomats or washington or whether it is american diplomats in moscow will vn effect on the mission of both of those embassies. so yes there will be a price to pay on both sides. >> jill, help us to understand vladimir putin's expected reactions here. i'm not going to ask you do predict. that is impossible to do. he has said -- his spokesman haze said there is no alternative to reciprocal measures but he also has what he presumes to be a friendlier u.s. president coming in. does he temper the response here? >> i think he's looking at his watch and saying we've got three weeks so we might as well let it
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all hang out. look at what they are doing. that step with the anglo-american school. but i think putin will look at this seriously. look at things he can do in a very strict let's say cyberway. he will do things that are symbolic and personal. and then he will do other things that will have to do with intelligence. i think it could be multi level. and they keep saying it is going to be tit for tat. so if there are some things that will not be revealed that the obama administration will be taking, there will be things that will be not revealed by the russians as well. but jim, i can tell you, the level of personal comments is amazing. on social media. the comments about obama coming
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from the russian administration are really unbelievable. calling them losers. that this administration isn't really an administration. they are just a bunch of losers. that tweet coming from the russian embassy in england in london. the lame duck. an actual picture of a duck. it is pretty -- >> no question. we've heard some of that in our own politics here in the u.s. you say the white house made it clear this is a reaction not just to the hacking but also tied to russia's conduct towards u.s. diplomats on the ground in russia? >> yeah. sort of less-reported story over the last couple of months. is i would say the antagonism, harassment. sometimes even physical of u.s. personnel in russia.
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the white house is clear that while we are all focused on cyber, this actually is bigger than just that. and there is no wiggle room in the intelligence community's assessment today. there is no outlier intelligence agency like we saw with the fbi perhaps earlier. the second is because the executive order can only be rescinded by a president, it will require trump to essentially go against his entire intelligence community. he can certainly do that. but it would take some explanation vis-a-vis his intelligence community, the one he'll be governing in the future. it is important to note the executive order is not solely related to russia. and it is not solely on just cyberhacking. it is against any nation that might now or in the future try to undermine our democratic processes. while we're focuses on 2016.
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this is really a statement about 2018, 2020 and elections ahead. >> let's not forget donald trump to this point had been willing to stand up against the entire intelligence community. maybe that doesn't change. please hold that thought. after a quick break we'll talk more about where this goes when it is only trump and putin. later a new cease fire taking effect in syria. the real question, can this one hold?
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we're talking tonight about u.s. retaliation against russia for hacking and tampering with the recent election. sanctions the white house says may not be the only steps taken. we're also talking about leading republican lawmakers endorsing the message. some even calling them not tough enough. and donald trump's considerable reluctance at the same time to call this what all 16 u.s. intelligence agencies say was a russian cyberattack. back now with the panel. i want to say for the sake of our audience jetson the spin here. jettison the spin here. you had today the senator leader mcconnell say russia was behind
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the attack. and the republican speaker of the house paul ryan. donald trump is standing firm is saying he'll mete with his intelligence leaders but we all got to move on. ever seen anything like this where the president defies lawmakers and others on an issue of the national security? >> i have not and it is so unprecedented and quite dangerous. you don't want a president elect whether democrat or republican coming at war with his or her intelligence agencies. it is a dangerous place to start. because well for two reasons. you want them to support you and the administration and the safety and security of the united states. but what the trump the president elect is doing is making it about himself. it is really not about himself. it is about the united states and our interests in the future. at some stage relatively soon president trump will have to either tell our allies or our
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enemies that we are going to do something. a war, bombing, whatever. sanction, whatever. are the tools that he'll be able to use. based on the sbeblgs that he has gathered from his sbeblgs agencies. and those countries will probably have less confidence just based on the trump administration's response in the last 48 hours. so it is a dangerous way to go and i think the trump administration needs to now think about the united states' interests. he'll be president and now has to think bigger than himself. >> oddly enough the suppressions of the doubt almost echo what we hear from friendship vladimir putin. does vladimir putin enjoy this internal division in the u.s. over this cyberattack? >> enjoy doesn't even begin to capture the glee that president putin feels about what is going
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on. he and k just sit back and smoke am cigar and not do anything and watch the united states churning in all of this. knowing that he can now criticize president obama. he doesn't even have to criticize him directly because he this kind of echo chamber of propaganda, disinformation, etc. is swirling around. so he can just kind of watch it all happen. but president putin, to be really serious, is smart. and i think that he has the measure of incoming president trump. i don't think he necessarily 100% feels that what was promised is going to be delivered. witness what's going on with the congress right now. mccain and others. so there is a bit of a reality check. but i think that just to really, you know, stick it to president obama gives him a lot of pleasure. >> steven, i have to ask you as someone with a long history
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inside the agency, the cia. how are agents within the agency reacting? how do they perceive this dismissal? >> i think shock is probably a good way to start. unprecedented is a also a good way to describe what's happening. i can speak from inside --. you had case officers and we tell these they need to go out in difficult locations, often times difficult for them and their families and inculcate in them a sense that this is important work. why is it important? it is important because the most senior levels of government -- presidents, senior, people in the executive branch, need these unique intelligence they collect and to have the president elect come in and say well, you know -- and cast dispersions essentially.
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not only on the agencies and organizations they work for but on the very intelligence they work so hard and put themselves at such risk to collect. it is going to be a tough row o roe to hoe i would imagine. >> coming up a threat of russian retaliation now. all this when 360 continues. ♪ ♪ if you've got the time welcome to the high life. ♪ we've got the beer ♪ miller beer mone hundredts thousand times a day, sending oxygen to my muscles.
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more now on our breaking news on the white house retaliation against russia over election hacking. including sanctions against 35 russian diplomats being order to leave the u.s. tonight. president elect trump weighed in saying it is time to move on. but mr. trump said he'll meet with intelligence officials next week to look at the evidence. and white house officials are ready for anything moscow might do in response. joins us now a former trump surrogate and monica langley,
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and political analyst and strategist jonathan tesny. host of the working life pod cast and "new york times" editor patrick healey as well. congressm congressman, they will say it is a democratic narrative but the fact is it is not. it is a bipartisan on this issue. the house speaker who's republican as you know believes russia is behind the hacking in fact is calling for stiffer penalties as has mitch mcconnell. why is donald trump continuing to defy that consensus? >> well i think what donald trump is doing is he's very clear. he's saying i'm skeptical of the intelligence and i'm going the wait to see exactly what my intelligence officials are going to present -- >> but why? on what basis is he skeptical --
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skeptical of the assessment of 16 u.s. intelligence agencies and the acceptance of that assessment from republican members and leaders of congress who have been briefed on the intelligence? en. >> i love listening to what's going on now. all the folks that, you know, in the past have criticized the intelligence community are flow saying wow, these folks are infallible, how can you question them? i wish that would have been the response to the intelligence community said they saw in iraq in 2001 and 2002 in terms of their capability of the producing weapons of the mass destruction -- >> you are muddying the waters here. understandably. listen. they got wmd in iraq wrong. but let's be honest. you have seen where they have
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gotten things right on the intelligence committee. particularly in cyberhacking. they were able to identify individuals in china which the justice department charged individuals in china for hack cyberattacks in the u.s. they were able to identify north korea as being behind the sony hack which then carried consequences as well. they have a track record and despite what donald trump says, that in the age of computers as he said you can't track this kind of stuff. the fact is the nsa has tools do this as do many private companies. based on that, what is the evidence then that donald trump has to dismiss it? >> well let's take a look at the report that the homeland security and the fbi issued today. number one -- and this is where you are absolutely right. they said with 100% certainty basically question say that russia successfully hacked into a political party in the united states. they then go on -- >> that is something that the president has not -- the
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president elect rather has not accepted. >> right. but then they go onto the more important points. they say it is likely that the russians exfiltrated data from the databases that it went into. it doesn't say with certainty that it happened. it said it is likely they did. then it says we assess that they shared with information with certain groups and then the information was made public. but there are lots of other unanswered questions. they don't mane make an assessment as to whether other people also were able to access that data and exfiltrate it. and they don't go on to perhaps what is the most important point in terms of ascribing what the motives were for this russian behavior. was it just the hacking? >> you are making the point that they haven't answered any question. but the key question is who is behind the hack. and that one say seem to have answered with confidence.
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patrick, monica and jonathan, pipe this here. but patrick you have been covering this closely. what do you make of this continued expression of doubt on this? >> this is all about legitimacy jim. donald trump is trying to protect an election result that a lot of democrats and a lot of others have sort of raised some doubts about in terms of the interference by russian intelligence agencies that may have tipped some of in in his favor, in the sense of creating so much focus around leaked e-mails, hacked e-mails, hacked documents. this is about for donald trump to give in on this and say that russian intelligence agencies did have a hand in my election, from his point of view, having interviewed him several times would be crazy. it would be weakening himself before he even gets close in here. and you have to remember jim, the way that he responds to
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these sort of allegations, even when they are put forward by the government, by intelligence agencies, is to go to, sort of vagaries and innuendo and sometimes even theories than speak to his voters, computers are tricky. we don't know how to handle this. this could be a 400 pound guy in a room doing this. and a lot of americans might sort of say, yeah. computers are tricky. you know. he's not -- so far as president elect at least and as aed can he hasn candidate he hasn't been trying to rebut things he just sort of makes statement -- >> muddying the waters. ima monica. this is going to --. you married from the house members today. they say they want to enact even tougher sanctions. so when you get into the new legislative session, you are
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going to have the prospect of a republican-led congress pushing for penalties for a crime in effect that the president doesn't accept. does he battle his own party on this? >> well i'm questioning whether they will push that first or whether they are going to go with his agenda, which is to do jobs and tax reform and things like that. i'm telling you what really is happening, jim is he is -- donald trump is going with his gut, as i've watched for a year and a half with him now. he doesn't always follow the evidence. if he had looked at the evidence and facts everybody presented to him he would have never run for president. so here he is again listening to his gut. listening to his statement today he said it is time to move on. he thinks what the american people want him do is focus on jobs, isis and things like that and not the russian hack. i do agree with patrick. it has do with he's feeling ticked off they keep questioning the legitimacy of his victory. but i also think he's one that
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goes for strength and he thinks by trying show weakness about his election are mike making putin look stronger and america look weaker because oh my gosh. >> wait a second you are turning it on the head there a little bit. >> i know, i was talking with an advisor today and they said by laying out all the things russia has done to us it makes us look weaker. >> how does it make you look wacker if you don't respond to a russian cyberattack? >> i'm telling you what a trump advisor told me and also this same advisor said what's happening is suddenly obama is laying all of this out and trying to be strong against the two countries that trump has shown he wants improved relations with. israel and russia. >> john, there is rightful and substantive criticism of the
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obama administration that they waited this long to respond. it was on october 7th that the intelligence community said with confidence russia is hacking the election. and frankly part of the reason we have reported that the obama administration waited to respond was because they were worried about delegitimatizing what they expected to be a hillary clinton victory. so why did they wait so long? >> i'm not moved by that. but i want to make two other points actually. one actually -- >> you have to answer the criticism of the obama administration -- >> i want to answer the question about what would have happened had hillary clinton been elected president. and i put myself in the place of being a democrat. what would i do if i was a democrat and these same allegations had been raised. in a small way -- and i'll goat donald trump in a second. in a small way have a some sympathy to what the congressman said. i haven't trusted the central intelligence agency. not just the wmd but going back 340, 40 years.
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i'm not saying this didn't happen. but i think the intelligence that the intelligence community has not put forth to the american people potentially for legitimate reasons there is still an open question. but the second thing i sympathy much more important and goes back to your previous panel. and you asked and i'm going roughly paraphrase you. have you ever seen anything like it? and the problem is we're trying to normalize donald trump. donald trump is an ignoramus he doesn't understand domestic or foreign policy. so we're sitting back and thinking how we have somebody who is going to walk into the oval office dealing with russia when he doesn't understand the first basic thing about arms control. >> strong words. i want to thank all of you because we covered a lot of ground there. appreciate it. and coming up we'll have more breaking news. disea it is about three and a half hours into a cease fire in syria. as a control enthusiast,
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keeping the power lines clear,my job to protect public safety, while also protecting the environment. the natural world is a beautiful thing, the work that we do helps us protect it. public education is definitely a big part of our job, to teach our customers about the best type of trees to plant around the power lines. we want to keep the power on for our customers. we want to keep our community safe. this is our community, this is where we live. we need to make sure that we have a beautiful place for our children to live. together, we're building a better california. tonight more breaking news. a cease fire that went into effect a late more than three hours ago in syria appears to already be in danger of falling apart. the russia says the syrian government and opposition had agreed to the terms of the cease fire along with a declaration of readiness to enter into more
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formal peace talks. the agreement does not include isis and other terrorist organizations. the latest information is that there have already been some clashes as we've seen time and time again, it is fragile. it is precarious. joining us now from istanbul is cnn's muhamad leila. thanks very much. you have been monitoring closely. you have a lot of experience on the ground in syria. what are you hearing about how this is holding up? >> reporter: so far syrian state media are not reporting any violations. we're not reporting any violations on the turkish or russian side. and they are monitoring. maybe some sporadic fighting between groups here and there in syria and that is to be expected. what we're really looking for to see the if cease fire is holding is if there are actions on a bigger scale. those that seem to be on more of a group level rather than individual level. and if they are happening on a group level that is a bad sign that the cease fire won't hold.
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but so far it is very early in this plosz. but it is looking as though it is very loosely holding so far.. but it is looking as though it is very loosely holding so far. >> so help us understand how this came about. what were the steps that led up to this agreement? >> well the most interesting fact is that this came about entirely without any u.s. involvement. they weren't invited to the peace talks. they weren't participating in any way. this was brokered by turkey and russia with iran having a seat at the table as well as syria having a seat. turkey and russia got together basically and hammered out this peace deal. they are the ones saying they will guarantee this peace deal. acting it is guarantors to make sure the groups on the ground obey the cease fire. and the hope is if the cease fire holds and if the roots of this nationwide cease fire take hold the next step would be peace talks in kazakhstan. where turkey, russia, syria and
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iran would again have a place at the table. and just today the kremlin suggesting president elect trump would be invited to those as well. interesting they completely bypassed president obama with those comments and gives you sense of president obama's legacy in syria that he's almost essentially now within written off by the parties as though president obama didn't really do anything and there is now more hope in president elect trump. >> certainly many in the region wrote him off a long time ago. and joining me now bobby gauche. cnn military analyst and retired --. do you think this cease fire because we've seen others come and go, sadly. do you think this one has the chance to hold? as putin himself said, the deal is fragile. even he's granting the deal is fragile. >> we have to hope that it holds just for the sake of the people
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who are caught in the milgd of it. recent history as a judge, there is not a lot of room for optimism. consider the brokers here. none of them can realistically be described as independent or neutral. you have russia, iran and of course syria itself. the regime of bashar assad which is the single most devastating force on the ground. the people who are responsible for overwhelmingly the largest proportion of the people dead and displaced. so it is not like you have an independent outside authority coming and bringing all the parties together and trying to broker a deal. you have the side that is making the biggest mayhem sitting at the table. the reason for opt nism i can't find one to be honsz honeest ho
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>> from a militat perspective i been involved in cease fires before. i'm not sure the objective. suddenly this was announced by three nations who have been fighting side by side, iran, syria and russia. turkey is an outsider to a degree but there's been a lot of coordination with turk by russia. item not sure what's involved here. when you talk the opposing side that has do with many of the rebels. however whenever you hear russia or syria or iran talk about rebels they use the word terrorists. there are no different words. so when you are talk act the kurdish rebels the sdf in the north, all the people attempting to fight against basher al saad. they are considered terrorists and fall in the category of not being invited to the table. i'm not sure the objective are other than stopping the fighting, which is great.
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but having been involved with russia before to include recently in ukraine, they tend to violate whatever treaties they want at any given time. so we're russian bashing tonight, probably for a very good reason. >> and not to mention targeting civilians intentionally. bob, do you see a fundamental change in u.s. policy towards syria as the obama administration ends and donald trump comes on board? he certainly has shown no enormous appetite for greatly expanding u.s. milt write involvement. in fact he sends signal he is wants to perhaps withdraw even more. >> well i think the important things is we were disinvited from the negotiations. these have been going on. russian's demands have been clear. and turkey's and so has bashar al assad. turkey, for instance, has to stop the fighting in order to stop the flow of refugees coming into turkey. it's simply is overwhelmed.
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what turkey was afraid if the fighting had continued. there was t a cease fire that lotted the refugees from the province would be driven in into turkey. turkey is absolutely furious about u.s. support to syrian kurds. most recently they have accused the united states of supplying surface to air missiles to the kurds. i don't think that is true. there are surface to air missiles showing up in the kurdish areas but they were bought in libya. nonetheless it gives you an idea how far out of this solution we are. ultimately we may see this work if -- and i've seen this for years, if syria is divided up. where you have the aloeites the minority regime directs and the sunnis in the north and russians and iranians are on the same side. it is too bad but it is truly a?
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>> i don't think the people in the west should be talking about dividing up the middle east anymore. we tried that, didn't work out too well. no one on the ground is asking for it, none of the syrians are asking for it. that's not for us to decide. that's for syrians to decide. let's figure out if we can get the violence to stop, so the syrians can have that conversation in a legitimate and peaceful way. it's not for -- we heard this during iraq, that iraq should be split into three. nobody on the ground really wants that, except, perhaps, the kurds. nobody else. it's really not the place of westerners. i'm sorry, bob, you know, i hold you in the highest esteem, but it is not for westerners to speculate about how things might be if countries in the middle east should be carved up, yet again. >> yeah, not a great track record there. you've got to admit. bobby ghosh, general hertling and bob baer, thank you both. coming up, anderson and kathy griffin talk about what to expect on saturday when they once again host new year's eve coverage. you don't want to miss it.
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well, a storm is coming and that storm is named kathy griffin. it happens every year, bringing a high pressure area of cnn's new year's eve coverage with anderson cooper to times square. more on that. but an actual winter storm is hitting new york. what's going on with the latest winter storm? >> the storm center itself has now made it into the harbor, offshore. but that means the rain that was in boston is changing ove ining snowfall at the rate of 2 to 3 inches per hour. light snow nah indianapolis, columbus. buffalo, we'll see the lake-effect snow machine in full force, but what was a pretty good rain event in new york city moved out hours ago, wind gusts were up to 40 miles per hour. so we had up to two-hour delays at jfk. now, it's just 30 minutes. passengers in newark that were looking at an hour and a half delay is also 30 minutes. however, at logan and international in boston,
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one-hour delays. the rain has changed over, thunder and lightning causing it to really come down in the northern suburbs. here are the warnings. vermont, new hampshire, and maine, where we're looking at maine to possibly pick up a foot of snow to blanket the entire state. some areas, jim, will have twice that amount. so travel highly advised against there. slowly, things will start to improve. >> tom, what about the weather on the night when you have a million people crowded into times square for new year's eve on saturday? what are you expecting? >> it really looks pretty good. cloudy skies, there's just a slight chance of rain. there's only a 20% chance. it may hold off until after midnight. temperature around 37 degrees, but a little breezy, so it will feel like it's in the upper 20s. if you know, jim, if you've ever been there, you don't feel it. it's quite a has of humanity there, so the temperatures aren't going to be a bad thing and with the rain holding off, a good evening. >> a lot of body heat in times square. thanks very much. over the years, anderson has weathered all kinds of surprises from kathy griffin on new year's
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eve. two nights from now, it is happening again, for the tenth time, if you can believe it. here's a quick preview of what's to come. >> how has this year been for you? how has 2016 been for you? >> oh, awful. i'm super excited to say good-bye to it. and i can't tell you how many people have told me that they're very much looking forward to you and i kicking this year in the butt. it was turbulent, it's still turbulent. i don't know what's going to go on anymore. it's truly different this year. so i will warn you and the audience, i, personally, unlike other years, will not be holding back. >> oh, god! >> at all. >> really? >> really. okay, so what is going through your mind -- >> have you signed -- >> no, i haven't signed the disclosure thing and i'm not doing it. when i say, this year, i don't hold back, what are the first three things that go into your mind? >> i think of all the things you have done, you handcuffed me, you spray tanned my face -- >> i can top it. >> painting my hair -- >> basically almost nude through times square just last year.
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is there anything i should prepare for? is there anything i can prepare for? is there any, you know, armor i could wear or something to protect myself new year's eve? >> well, here's what i think you should think about. when you show up on the platform or frankly anywhere in our entire relationship. your emotional armor is so thick. and i don't want to use the word kryptonite, but it's more like, kathy, like, what power tools are you going to bring to try to put some chink in that armor. >> you wear it on your sleeve, all out there this year. >> that's right. that's right. >> tenth anniversary. no turning back. >> no. >> all right. >> by the way, is that your idea of selling this evening? "all right." like, why don't you just say, "cnn, new year's eve, it's your funeral." no, this is the best show ever! >> it is the best show ever! >> we will have more of anderson and kathy's conversation in the next hour of "360." join them saturday night starting at 8:00 p.m. eastern as
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they kick off the countdown to 2017. coming up next tonight, more on our breaking news on russia. president obama expels dozens of putin's diplomats and spies here in the u.s. the move is in retaliation for the election hacking. the question, what will moscow do next and what will president-elect donald trump do when he's president? taking a holiday in britain, are ya doll? well, the only place you need go... london's got the best of everything.
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cornwall's got the best of everything. sport sport nightlife nightlife (both) fashion adventure i'm tellin' ya, britain is the only place you really need go. expedia. everything you need to travel britain better.
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