country. >> and every indication is that it doesn't stop at colorado and washington, but that this is a momentum thing. >> tom foreman with the latest numbers. interesting shifts. that's it for me this hour. thanks very much for watching. i'll be back 5:00 p.m. eastern in "the situation room." please join us then. "newsroom" continues right now with brooke baldwin. wolf, thank you. i'm brooke baldwin. not a single state in the u.s. has escaped this brutal and let me add deadly cold. all 50 states plummeting to below freezing. yes, hawaii, i am even talking to you. the deep freeze is blamed for at least 15 deaths so far. some killed on icy roads. others simply froze to death. the snow, the icy conditions still grounding thousands of flights and quite literally stopping trains on their tracks. case in point, just outside chicago, more than 500 passengers spent the entire night stuck inside three amtrak

trains, stranded some 15 hours. we'll be talking to one of those passengers by the way coming up. because of this, huge snow and ice drifts blanketing the tracks. this video shot by one of the passengers onboard the train. he talked to cnn this morning. >> initially, they were going to try and push it with other trains. going to send in a rescue train. a whole bunch of different strategies. it was just -- well, we're going to try that and then we wait for two, three hours. they gave us a kind of makeshift meal even. but yeah -- and for the most part, i think the passengers have been pretty tolerant of the situation. what are we going to do? i mean, we're stuck. >> like i said, we'll be talking with one of those passengers. also, michigan, the snow is so heavy the roof of a k-mart buckled under the weight. you saw the sign, the store is

closed because of that. overnight, lake effect snow pounded lake erie. the whiteout conditions in buffalo, new york, as i speak. bitter cold air from this polar vortex. the polar vortex created this amazing sight over lake michigan. but there are few places colder than right now than in the heart of minnesota, and it is here in minneapolis where we find cnn's intrepid cold correspondent erin mcpike standing by for us. if you can, can you even describe the bitter cold you are feeling right now? >> reporter: okay, so brooke, right now it's zero degrees. we've gotten up to zero. >> up to zero. >> reporter: you may see one degree -- yes. we might see a degree or two in the next couple hours, but that's as high as it's going to go. it feels like below zero. it feels like negative 11 right

now because of this windchill factor. now, when we landed here in minneapolis last night, it was 17 below. and what i can tell you about that, getting off the plane and walking up the jetway, the walls of the jetway were kind of icy. you could still see your breath when you walked out of the jetway and on to the airport. very cold. i haven't been outside for more than ten minutes at any stretch of time. that is bearable. but that's about as long as you want to be outside, because once you go back finside, you can fel it in your fingers and toes. it's painful. you might get a head ache from being out in the cold too long. so that's why everybody's saying don't stay out any longer than ten minutes, 30 minutes tops, because it will hurt. >> i'm sure you would feel it beyond fingers and toes. erin mcpike, we want you to get back inside, you and your photo journalism producer. thank you for standing out there in it for us. from the moment this polar air made its way south, airports

have been in meltdown mode. really across the country, just today, more than 2300 flights have been cancelled. airlines still scrambling to clear the backlog of stranded passengers. so it begs the question, why the heck did jetblue cancel 400 flights when other runways kept running? cnn's dane asher is at laguardia airport. this is pretty unheard of. why did jetblue do this? >> reporter: it was really all about jetblue hitting the reset button. they had a lot of flights that depart from the new york city area, the boston area. we are in the terminal. activities slowly resuming, getting back to normal. i've been speaking to passengers outside the jetblue terminal. a lot of them kind enough to share their stories with me. one woman anticipates a four-hour delay before she gets on her flight. another woman saying how difficult it is to get hold of a real live person on the phone.

one woman saying she actually ended up calling jetblue 30 times. take a listen. >> so we had a flight at 10:00. and found out it was cancelled. and we tried to call jetblue. they wouldn't answer. they kept hanging up on us. said your call is going to end now. they hang up, they hang up. 30 calls ter. they just gave up. they finally tried one time last night around like 7:00. and then they finally answered the phone. but it was an hour and a half wait on the phone. >> reporter: so a lot of passengers clearly frustrated. i've been speaking to them and asking them, obviously these airlines cannot control the weather. but what could jetblue have done to make the experience a little bit easier? a lot of people saying to me it really is all about communication. one couple actually saying that they were scheduled to leave from laguardia and last-minute, jetblue told them actually no, wait a second, it's actually going to be jfk. so really it's all about communication. i do want to make clear, though,

that it's not just jetblue that's experiencing these disruptions. it's other airlines, too, but jetblue does have a lot of airplanes that do depart from the new york area. >> jetblue will be holding a media conference at the bottom of the hour. do we have any clue how they plan to defend what's been going on? >> reporter: right now they're saying they do intend for operations to resume back to normal at 3:00. we're not sure if that's going to happen because there are still some delays. but jetblue has been dealing with specific criticism because they're the only airline that blamed the new faa rules that require pilots to have more r t rest. they've had two years to undergo those changes and other airlines haven't used it as an excuse. so they have been facing some flak for that. >> we'll see if anything does happen. thank you very much. at laguardia, chances are the windchill is unbearable.

maybe it doesn't quite look like this. like buffalo. but it's tough to imagine today every single part of the u.s. plummets to below freezing. i'm even talking about states closest to the equator. florida, hawaii. you couldn't escape the chill either. chad myers is standing by. i know this is january, but come on. this is unusual. >> this is probably a once in 20 year event. >> wow. >> when it gets this cold for this long in so many places, people die. i want you to take precautions. make sure the pets are taken care of. this is a live shot from niagara falls, new york. i used to live right back there somewhere. that is the big horseshoe falls. and then the american falls. the maid of the mist is not going to niagara falls today and there is ice jam down here on the river and there could be flooding here in the south towns around buffalo, south buffalo because of all of that water trying to get through the river system, but now ice jam is

stopping by that. marquette, michigan, down to 17 degrees below zero. detroit 14 below this morning. pittsburgh breaking the record at nine below. it feels right now, green bay 28 below. i can't even imagine what that feels like. i know when you're trying to do a life shot, your face starts to slow down. the muscles don't want to move. your skin starts to congeal. >> your face hurts. >> but you literally can't make the words anymore. that's what it sounds like when you start to get out there and do a live shot for two to three minutes. so be careful out there. i know there are people that have to work out there, work outside, whether they're baggage handlers or police officers. be kind of them. give them a little bit of a break today. a little extra time for them to do their job maybe. >> chad myers, thank you so much for doing your job and keeping us informed on how cold it is. now some of the hottest stories. six republicans join unanimous democrats in sort of an unexpected win for the long-term unemployment. take a look with me. these are the republicans.

dan coates. all six voted yes to three more months of federal aid to people who have not worked for at least half a year. full passage requires another senate vote. an arizona man has been busted allegedly trying to smuggle a woman into the country, and yes, there is a photo. yes, it was in his suitcase. customs and border protection officers at the port say they found the 48-year-old thai national hidden underneath clothing after zipping open the suitcase in the back of an suv and this is what they found. the man was traveling from mexico to the u.s. he now faces human smuggling charges. and a trucker says this crash happened because the officer who reported it also had his blue lights flashing. the trucker says the lights diverted his attention just as traffic ahead was slowing. by the time he recovered, all he

could do was swerve, says that driver. no one was killed or injured. america's most recognizable skier will not be hitting the slopes at next month's winter olympics. lindsey vonn says her injured knee is just too unstable to compete for gold at the sochi games. she tore ligaments in her knee 11 months ago. an injury when she crashed in november. von says she plans to have surgery soon so she will be ready for the world championships in vail next february. coming up next, it is the interview that has everybody talking today. dennis rodman right now in north korea, sits down with cnn. goes off on my colleague chris cuomo. you'll hear what rodman says to critics and the remark about an american being held by north korea that is definitely raising eyebrows. >> i don't give a rat's ass what hell you think. i'm saying to you, look at these guys here. look at them.

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players joined them for an exclusive interview from north korea. rodman has struck up this bizarre friendship of sorts with kim jong-un. rodman erupted when chris cuomo asked him about american kenneth bay, who has been detained by the north korean government. even implying that they did something wrong. that heated exchange in just a moment. but we'll start with charles smith defending the reasons behind the trip. >> he is not here, and i am not here -- none of these guys are here to talk any sense into any politician, and to have any -- other than basketball diplomacy, which i feel is about having a relationship -- utilizing the relationship with others in an accommodating way through basketball, which we did today with the north korean team. that's what we're here for. do you really think that the

leaders here are going to listen to what we have to say? and we're not here to do that. that's not what we're here to do. we're here specifically to put smiles on people's faces, ever lasting memories in the minds of individuals, and hopefully with the good work that we do, we give to charity while we're here. and we're just going to be an example to how we are as americans when it comes to the sport of basketball. so please, don't continue to put politics into that. this is not what we're here for. >> i get it, charles. i get why you're there. the problem is it's more complicated than basketball. it just is. it's more complicated than basketball. >> you say it's more complicated than basketball. basketball is not complicated to us. and that's what we do. >> it's a great idea for them all.

for the world. and people always turn down the things i do. and it's weird. it's like wow. you get michael jordan, you get the lebrons. this, this, this. they can do all the things in the world. but me. why north korea? why? i love my friend. i love my friend. this is my friend. i don't know one thing about politics. you understand what kenneth bay did. do you understand what he did? >> what did he do? you tell me. what did he do? >> you tell me! you tell me, why is he held captive? >> they haven't released any

charges. >> i would love to speak on this -- >> go ahead. >> you got ten guys here, ten guys here that have left their families, left their families to help this country in a sports venture. ten guys -- all these guys here. do anyone understand that? >> we do, and we appreciate that, and we wish them well. >> i'm just saying -- no, i don't give a [ bleep ] -- i don't give a rat's ass what the hell you think. i'm saying to you, look at these guys here! look at them! >> don't put it at them. don't use them as an excuse for the behavior that you're putting on yourself. >> they came here! >> you just basically were saying that kenneth bae did something wrong. we don't etch knven know what t charges are. don't use them as a shield for you guys. >> listen, listen --

>> let me do this! really, i want to tell you one thing. people around the world, around the world -- i'm going to do one thing. the guys here doing one thing. we get to go back to america and take the abuse. we're going to take it. you, sir, let me know. guess what. one day -- one day, this is going to open. these ten guys here, all of us, dennis, charles, everybody here. we can just open the door just a little bit for people to come

here and do one thing. >> okay. so that happened this morning. coming up next, i'll speak live with an nba legend who played with all these guys. we'll get his reaction, including how the players alongside rodman have their own histories of acting out. do not miss that. plus, president obama says losing a job could happen to anyone and pushes congress to extend benefits for the unemployed. but will it happen? that's coming up. you're watching cnn. uck is stil. so my dog and i we're going to go find it. it's out there somewhere spreading the good word about idaho potatoes and raising money for meals on wheels. but we'd really like our truck back, so if you see it, let us know, would you? thanks. what?

we have been talk about dennis rodman's latest outburst. we just played you a chunk of what happened. this happened right here on cnn. you just saw the video of rodman going off on chris cuomo. greg anthony is here. he played 11 years in the nba. you overlapped with mr. rodman for a time. >> i did, i did. >> how to even begin? watching this this morning, do you think he's okay? >> well, it seemed to me based on the fact that he's holding a cigar and sounded like he just left a party, that maybe he was

just partaking in some of the social activity in north korea. you know, he went over to have a good time. more importantly, what i found to be funny was did you see the look of discomfort of everybody else on the panel? t none of the other guys figured they signed up for that. it was a little humorous, but unfortunate. on a serious note, listen, sports has always been a vestible. i think it was nixon when he was having discussions with china. that was one of the first opportunities for those nations to cultural connect. this is well before you and i were born. and so i think in a lot of ways,

that's what this could be about. if we're waiting for dennis rodman to be our ambassador to the rest of the world, come on now. >> let me get to the maybe maybe maybe a door opening one day. let's run through the roster of form players. vin baker, he battled alcoholism. kenny anderson, dui, lost his coaching job. craig hodges once accused the nba of blackballing his political views. so it's an interesting group of guys. >> yeah, it is an interesting group. but i don't think it's necessarily fair to point out the problems they've had in the past. >> why not? >> i don't think that's what this is about. we're making this about politics when it's about basketball. i don't think that that part of this is fair. >> then why do you think they went over there? >> i think they went over in essence to bring our game, which we take all over the world, to try to grow and expose, and in the same breath, also utilize it as an opportunity to maybe start some discussion and some

dialogue. >> do you think it is entirely altruistic? >> they may have individual agendas. that i don't know. but again, i don't know that we're necessarily carrying this out completely fairly. i don't have any conversations with these guys. i know them. >> if you were invited, would you have gone? >> i probably would not have gone. but again, so should we now -- at least that's what i thought we were talking about. most of us in america talk about trying to reach out and extend a hand to try to start a conversation. i know our president has done that and talked about it over the course of his tenure in office. so to me, i think that's where this is going. having said that, did they handle this as well as they could have? absolutely not. but i don't think these guys are ambassadors or diplomats and should be ridiculed for something that's happened in the past. i don't think that they're doing this to start a world war or to

do anything other than maybe try to expose -- let's forget about the political aspect. what about the young people in north korea who don't have a political agenda, who just love the game of basketball? >> it's just that we look at what dennis rodman has done and we know what's happening in north korea, and then -- >> well, we know what's happening in america, don't we? >> sure, but we're talking about north korea because dennis rodman is over there. >> yeah, but people come to america all the time, and guantanamo bay is still open. >> sure, but we're talking about north korea. but they're not playing the game of basketball in gitmo. >> people are coming from other parts of the world. we take in readily people from cuba who we've had difficult relationships with. and all other walks of life. shouldn't we be the ones who are more compassionate? i'm not blaming us. north korea, we have issues with. we all understand and accept that. but i think we made a lot more out of this than needs to be. dennis rodman didn't help himself. >> you're over it. i know a lot of people are over it as well.

>> it was entertaining, though. >> it was. i'm still waiting for the photo on. thank you very much for coming in. coming up, it is shocking, disturbing. some of the words used to describe video of this toddler posted on the omaha police department's website. we will show you the video that has a lot of people now criticizing the department. [ male announcer ] this is kevin.

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bottom of the hour. i'm brooke baldwin. not a single state in the u.s. has escaped this brutal and deadly cold. all 50 states plummeting to below freezing. yes, even hawaii. the deep freeze is blamed for at least 15 deaths so far. some killed on icy roads. some simply froze to death. the snow and icy conditions have grounded 2,300 flights. that's just today. in suburban atlanta, firefighters struggled to put out a house fire in single digit temperatures. one trick they're using, lighting the hydrant on fire to thaw them out. have you ever heard of that? the frigid weather means any part of your body not covered up

is susceptible to the cold, even your eyelashes. a colleague walked to work on chicago's adams avenue. that is how cold it is. also in chicago, passengers finally back home after spending the night on stranded amtrak trains. some were stuck for 15 hours because of these huge snow and ice drifts blanketing the tracks. this video shot by one of the passengers. cnn's ted rowlands was there when some of the trapped passengers finally got home, finally arrived. you talked to some of them, ted. what did they have to say? >> reporter: as you can imagine, brooke, it was a little bit uncomfortable trapped in a train for that amount of time. these are folks that came from california. most of them. we're still waiting on a few more bus loads here at union station to arrive. most of them were in pretty good spirits. they realize this was not amtrak, it was mother nature behind this and they were warm. they were fed what food was

left. i think if it had gone a little bit longer, you would have had some problems. but there were no health issues, according to amtrak and the folks we talked to by and large were happy, believe it or not, were happy to arrive here in frigid sub-zero chicago. this was their final destination, so their were happy to get here. all in all, most of them had a pretty good attitude. but one woman did say she could no longer feel her derriere because she was sitting on it for 20-plus hours. >> bless her. ted rowlands, thank you. we'll be talking to one of those passengers who will finally be home in chicago we hope by next hour, so stay tuned for that. windchills so cold, you could get frostbite in mere minutes. the walk from your car into work could just downright be painful. but imagine living out in that kind of cold. in topeka, kansas, a rescue mission took to the streets to pick up the homeless, taking them to motels, just to stay warm for the night. >> grateful for everybody that's helping us out. it's been pretty cold out here.

>> how are y'all, man? y'all are the bomb. >> blessed, okay? >> we are blessed. have a good night, man. be warm. be able to sit around in some sweat pants. >> thank you very much, sir. i appreciate that. thank you, jesus. i love you, jesus. >> in atlanta, alaina is outside martha brown united methodist church. it's in the single digits out there. tell me what atlanta is doing to help these folks. >> reporter: the city of atlanta actually had people going out last night and offering rides to shelters to the homeless people in the city. they also opened up a shelter of their own just on an emergency basis so people had a place to go. this church opened up its doors last night to offer people a break from the frigid temperatures. take a listen to what the pastor has to say about why. >> it is a big deal.

school is closed, everybody shuts down, gets a little nervous about it. but especially this vulnerable community who rely on shelters or hospitality of others. we just want to respond, and lots of other groups have responded, opening doors to their needs. >> reporter: and this church has seen a flood of donations. we want to show you some video from inside the area where these donations are being kept, and also whereabout two dozen people spent the night. they plan to reopen their doors to give these people a break from the bitter cold. >> thank you very much. sometimes if you have a little one, sometimes a toddler tries to emulate mom or dad. but this is not exactly that case. because the video we are about to show you may not be suitable for all viewers. but it has led to some serious anger. critics say the omaha police

officers association opened pandora's box by posting it on the internet. take a listen. >> you a [ bleep ]. you throwing a fit right now? [ bleep ]. [ bleep ]. talking that [ bleep ] now. [ bleep ] you, too. >> say [ bleep ]. >> that's why you can't fight. >> i know. it's a lot of bleeping, but it's coming from the voices and this toddler. it's horrendous. but some critics came down harder on the police association, accusing it of basically race baiting with a polarizing video. casey winans watching this one for us today. why did the police association put this video up on the website? >> reporter: let me read you what they said about that. they said "we have an obligation to share, to continue to educate the law-abiding public about the

terrible cycle of violence and thuggery that some young innocent children find themselves helplessly trapped in." talk about violence and thuggery. that's because on that unedited video, which goes on for a minute and 23 seconds, 35 different profane words exchanged between the child and at least three adults in the room during that period of time. they talk about gang issues. they talk about sexual issues. i don't know if you can really see it or if our viewers can see it, but the child holds up its middle finger during that exchange to the adults. it's very, very disturbing. the police officers association saying they basically have an obligation to share what's going on with the public. >> it's hard to even understand -- you can't even hear what's happening in the video because of the profanity back and forth. you hear these adult voices. who are the people in the video? >> well, we don't know specifically. the police officers association says that on the facebook posting that they took this from, one of the people posting said that he was the child's

uncle. we don't know that specifically. they did not post any names. so we don't know. what we do know is a lot of people on social media upset by the potential racial overtones of this, and by the fact that the police officers association did not blur that young child's face when it posted that video, brooke. >> casey wian, thank you. black actress finally joins the "saturday night live" cast, six years after mya rudolph left. is this enough to quiet the critics? plus, the first political battle of the year is on in congress. it is up to the president, stepping up pressure over jobless benefits. but will he win? jake tapper joins me next. uncer] the new new york is open. open to innovation. open to ambition. open to bold ideas. that's why new york has a new plan -- dozens of tax free zones all across the state. move here, expand here, or start a new business here and pay no taxes for ten years...

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to do her homework. now, more than one million americans have been connected at home. it makes it so much better to do homework, when you're at home. welcome to what's next. comcastnbcuniversal. we touched on this a little while ago. the senate voted this morning to go ahead and debate this bill to grant three more months of federal aid to the long-term unemployed. just after christmas, the checks ran out. no more payments to a million-plus people who haven't work for six months or more. the six republicans, here they are, they joined a unanimous democrats in voting to open debate on the bill, which by the way hasn't passed the house yet. stay with me here. jake tapper, let me bring you in. our chief washington correspondent, host of "the lead." 1.3 million people jobless benefits gone. what's the earliest possible

date those payments could be restored? i know this is a big if. if congress agrees to do so. >> that is a big if, brooke. the house of representatives, it's not clear if speaker boehner is willing to take up the bill at all. i suppose the answer would be theoretically in a week or so, but speaker boehner has said that the bill needs to have a, some sort of effort at job creation, which i believe would be in his view tax cuts or cutting, eliminating some regulations that he says are preventing job creation. and also what are called in washington, d.c. pay fors. if this costs six billion dollars, how are you going to pay for it. cuts in other areas of the government. this bill does not have pay fors and does not have a component in terms of job creation, so it doesn't meet speaker boehner's requirement. so this needs to go through the house, and i don't see any way that it's going to in its current state. >> so that's a lot of caveats

for speaker boehner. but as for the president, we heard from the president. the president liked how today's vote turned out. take a listen to president obama. >> when congress passes a bipartisan effort, starting here right at the beginning of the new year, who knows, we might actually get some things done this year. so after all the hard work and sacrifice of the past five years to recover and rebuild from the crisis, what i think the american people are really looking for in 2014 is just a little bit of stability. >> jake tapper, let's talk about that stability. because this brings us to an important deadline. it is january 15th. it is one week from tomorrow. will we get a budget? will we avert another painful, embarrassing government shutdown? >> well, i can't promise anything, but sources close to the negotiation say that things do look optimistic in terms of avoiding hitting the debt ceiling, avoiding another government shutdown over that

issue. i don't know the details. i don't know anything more than reassurances from congressional sources saying things look good. >> do you feel reassured by those reassurances? >> well, you can never be reassured enough in a town like washington, d.c. as of now, people who know well say that things look good, but you just never know in this situation, especially when there is so much difference between the views of the house of representatives and the democrats in the senate and president obama. so i believe that there's no reason to panic right now. i'll just leave it at that. >> we'll leave it there. jake tapper, thank you. we'll see you in an hour 15 on "the lead." a new "rolling stone" article is criticizing the critics. a fascinating piece. we'll talk to the author who says the debate isn't about drugs at all. so what is it about? the answer next. hey linda! what are you guys doing? having some fiber! with new phillips' fiber good gummies.

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it has been one feel week since adult smokers have been able to light up in colorado. a new poll indicates many more americans want to join them. 55% of americans think pot should be legal. that is more than double what a general social survey found back in 1996 when 26% thought marijuana should be allowed. one thing, though, that has not

changed over the years, both sides have plenty of valid arguments and some were articulated last night on ac-360 later. >> i don't believe that pleasure needs to be banished from our society, or some kind of threat to our ability -- there are so many millions, millions of law-abiding adults in this country that use this drug like they would use alcohol in moderation. the key thing is moderation. >> i don't disagree with you. the problem is the statistics, andrew. and the statistics show that more kids are going to use when you say there's a permissive environment. that's a fact. so tobacco. you know, joe camel. it took us 60 years to reverse the tobacco industry's insistence that cigarettes were good for you. how long is it going to take with a million dollars a day where these marijuana growers are now getting all this investment banking money, jeffrey. they're going to be in the business of addicting kids.

>> you don't addict kids. the whole point on anything prohibition is to keep this drug away from kids. you think kids today don't have access? they have access to the drug via criminals. >> we're going to bring that up with the author of this fascinating "rolling stone" piece. the contributing editor goes after those who go after legal pot and he joins me right now. matt, welcome. >> thanks for having me on. >> these critics, you call them luminaries. you say they are hot to build a wall of decency around a new american menace, marijuana. why did you respond? >> i just think people like joe scarborough and tina brown, generally speaking privileged white people like me and the rest of those people, i don't think we have any moral authority to say that marijuana should remain illegal, because

none of us were ever really at risk ofetting arrested or ttingn trouble for smoking marijuana. i think most of u%ís tt the colleges we went to and the high schools you went to more or less was fragrant. the people who actually get arrested and get in trouble tend to be poor, non-white and urban. and they're the people who should make the decision about whether or not this drug should be legal. i just don't think we really have a say in it. >> it's interesting, you bring up moral authority, because there was this whole other poll where we talked -- we asked a lot of different moral questions. let me show you one. it found 64% of people do not think it is morally wrong to smoke pot. of course, we're talking about the current day. this is more than double from back in 1987, only 27% at the time thought pot was morally okay. do you think, matt, as time moves on that this is just one of those issues that will just phase out once the older

generation passes on? marijuana was still a relatively taboo thing. by the time i finished college, everybody was smoking weed more or less out in the open. and this generation smokes it even more. the idea that you can go through school as a young person and smoke freely without getting in trouble, and then turn around as a 40 or 50-year-old and tell other people that they should go to jail or lose professional licenses for doing the same thing, i think that strikes this generation as absurd. it's going to strike the next generation as absurd and i think it's only going to go in that direction. >> i just have to ask, smoking pot in in college in the open, where did you go to school? >> bart college. >> just curious. because i didn't quite see that myself. let me move on and quote you. you write "i think all of us who smoke marijuana will admit that the drug doesn't bring out one's

inner einstein. that said, nobody is dumber or more dangerous than a drunk and we long ago realized we had to make alcohol legal. that's because the legalization question whether about pot or alcohol is never really a referendum over the drugs in question. it's much more a referendum on prohibition." matt, explain. >> the whole thing is not really about the drug. it's really about weighing the consequences of the benefits of keeping the drug illegal versus the damage you're doing by arresting 800,000 people a year for what's essentially a harmless recreational substance. i personally met in my research about the criminal justice system so many people who have had their lives overturned by marijuana arrests. and the question is, is that prohibition worth the trouble? are we getting enough by making the drug illegal to outweig the damage doing to so many lives, almost a million a year. i just think the answer has to

be no, especially when you consider that we're legalizing a much more dangerous vindictive drug than alcohol and tobacco. >> if you agree with matt, send me a tweet. coming up next, kevin hart and ice cube join me right here in studio 7, and we talk about pot, we talk about "saturday night live" ag its first black female in six years, and a lot of things. do not miss this. plus, much more on dennis rodman's outburst against cnn's chris cuomo. the white house is now responding. stay right here. >> i don't give a rat's ass what the hell you think. i'm saying to you, look at these guys here. look at them! there's a new form of innovation taking shape.

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next is information and entertainment in ways you never thought possible. welcome to what's next. comcastnbcuniversal. the stars team up with this new hollywood film called "ride along" coming out january 17th. they stopped by the cnn studios and we chatted about the film and a couple other hot topics making news lately, including "saturday night live" hiring its first african-american female comic in six years. here's what they thought. >> people tend to put a race issue on everything. "snl" has existed for years. i was a person who auditioned for "snl." i didn't get "snl." it had nothing to do with my race at the time.

i wasn't right for the part. i'm quite sure several women of all races have been going out for "snl" and have been turned away. what people don't understand is there's literally one part that's available every two seasons or season and a half. how lorne michaels does his system. he picks who he feels should be in that one part. >> whoever is most qualified. >> they've made this black woman thing an issue and i don't think it's fair to other black women, because other black women are like yeah, yeah, yeah! we do need a chance! you got 3,000 black women coming out for this one opportunity for what seems to be the black woman part. >> so you're saying much ado about nothing. >> yes. it's so much about nothing. congratulations to her. she had an audition. she got the part. not because she was black, because she was qualified. >> kevin hart, thank you. that interview, by the way, one of the most -- i'll call it entertaining in quite a while. you will see the entire thing one hour from now. we talked pot, we talked dennis rodman erupting on cnn. we talked president obama.

we even talked about the polar vortex. do not miss that in one hour. shaasheer zamata is the nam of the cast member joining the staff. she is the first black member joining the cast since mya rudolph left six years ago. joining me now amanda seals. amanda, welcome. >> how you doing? >> i'm doing well. you heard kevin hart, he says no big deal, she was qualified, has nothing to do with skin color. how do you feel? >> well, that's silly. i mean, i love kevin, but i really feel like this has been about skin color from the onset of the issue. so that's inherently what it is. don't get me wrong, i think that it forced them to find someone who does fit the skill set of "snl," but who also fits the skin color scenario that is at hand. the fact is that it is kind of ridiculous that there has been six seasons and there has not been a black woman on the show.

i mean, it just doesn't add up, especially when there are so many talented black female comediennes, myself included, that are just not -- >> have you tried out? >> yes, i did try out, actually. >> okay. >> but trust me, she is the bomb. i'm so happy they picked her. she's smart, witty, funny, hilarious. and they need a sister and she's that, too. >> let me jump in. this is keenan thompson. he talked to tv guide. this is part of what he said. it's just a tough part of the audition. they just never really find ones that are really. so might there be an issue? i heard you saying there are plenty of funny comediennes who are african-americans. do you disagree with him, that there were not enough? >> i disagree with him completely. as they also learned when they decided to make the pointed effort of opening this up. >> so what happens? >> "snl" auditions also are not open to everybody. that's the other thing. >> how do you mean? >> well, because they are

very -- it's a closed circuit. so, you know, if you don't have the right management or per se you're not in the right circle, you also don't have access to the right eyes. so that's part of it, too. the black female comediennes, they are dispersed across the spectrum, but i think that there's also a certain kind of comedienne that fits into the "snl" spectrum and that that may not necessarily include a large number of black female comediennes. >> what would you like to see from her this season? >> be herself. that's what i want to see her. i want to see her be herself. i want to see her be able to inject what she does into this show without having to carry the black female load on her back. and that's what i worry that folks are going to put on her. but really she's just coming in to show some diversity and they need it. >> we'll be watching. i know you will. amanda seales, thank you so much.

hi there, i'm brooke baldwin. top of the hour. you are watching cnn. it has been a deep, deep freeze in every single state. every one of you in the u.s. saw below freezing temperatures. this is the kind of cold that would give you frostbite within minutes. every state. florida, hawaii, you are not immune to this deep freeze. the snow and icy conditions still grounding flights just today. 2,300 flights have been cancelled. airlines scrambling to clear the backlog of stranded passengers. and this weather quite literally stopping trains on their tracks. you heard about this outside chicago. more than 500 passengers spent the night stuck inside not one, not two, three amtrak trains. stranded for some 15 hours. huge snow and ice strips blanketing the tracks.

this video here shot but one of those stuck passengers. he talked to cnn just this morning. >> a whole bunch of different strategies. we're going to try that and wait for two, three hours. and they gave us a kind of makeshift meal even yesterday evening and that did help. and for the most part, i think the passengers have been pretty tolerant of the situation. i mean, what are we going to do? we're stuck. >> they were stuck. they are no longer. they hopped on buses heading home. they were rescued, finally en route to chicago. erin, you do look a little

colder than last hour. describe for all of us the bitter cold. >> so brooke, right now, it is still zero degrees. it feels like 12 below. but it's going to feel like 25 below later tonight because of the windchill factor. it's going to stay cold tomorrow. some reports say there will be about three degrees. people are saying this is historic and of course it's dangerous. so whenever i go to a part of the country that's experiencing really bad weather, people ask me what do the homeless do. here in minneapolis last night, the local homeless shelter that's run by the salvation army said that they had 750 people stay there, and that is a record. the other thing i can tell you is that a local hospital in the area says they usually see about 30 patients a year for frostbite, but they just saw 30 patients in december alone and

they say they're on track to see another 30 patients this month. they've already seen about a dozen so far. you can see that it's not snowing right now and hasn't been snowing. there is, of course, snow on the ground. when you have subzero temperatures, that makes for the black ice situation. so aaa says they have received more calls than ever in the last day or so because of some of these dangers. 3,000 calls yesterday alone in this area as opposed to 2,500, which is a previous record set in 2007. so it has been dangerous. it's going to be getting better tomorrow and into thursday. >> in minneapolis, they have all those tunnels downtown so you don't have to walk outside, you just stay indoors and bundle up, but i'm sure you're starting to lose feeling.

erin, thank you very, very much. it's not just the cold here. one airline cannot blame all of its woes on weather. jetblue dealing with fallout after its extraordinary decision to voluntarily ground flights for 17 hours at four of the busiest airports in the country. zain asher is at laguardia. jetblue held this media call not too long ago. >> reporter: they wanted to really sort of take the time to explain why this particular winter storm proved so tricky for them. they're saying look, 80% of our flights originate or touch down in new york city or boston. therefore you have a massive

winter storm hit the eervast co, it does affect them disproportionately. jfk was closed several hours due to inability to remove snow. they talked about these new faa rules that required pilots to get more rest. they're saying it's not the rules itself that proved so tricky, it was having to implement the rules right in the middle of a winter storm. that was also tricky for them as well. but they did take the steps to preemptively cancel flights because they wanted to protect the crews as well. but the most important thing for them right now is really protecting customer loyalty and winning back those customers. >> what about those customers? what are jetblue passengers being told right now? >> reporter: so here's what they're being told. tair being told that they will receive a refund for cancelled flights. there are also additional flights being scheduled. they talk about the compensation

plan. if you incur incurred multiple s exens -- expenses, you will be compensated. one thing i am hearing from a lot of passengers is how difficult it is to get hold of a real live person when you call jetblue. one woman saying to me she ended up calling jetblue 30 times. take a listen. >> we had a flight at 10:00. thought it was cancelled. we tried to call jetblue. they wouldn't answer. they kept hanging up on us. saying your call is going to end now. they hang up. 30 calls later, i just gave up. we finally tried like one time last night around like 7:00 and they finally answered the phoning but it was an hour and a half wait on the phone. >> jetblue saying they have had trouble with their automated system, so if you're rebooking,

it is best to wait until you get home. brooke? >> okay, thank you very much. even some polar bears and penguins had to take shelter at zoos across the country. ted myers is here. you think of homes, cars, even little pets. i'm walking my pug this morning thinking yikes. what does this mean long-term for them? >> the pets need to be inside when it gets down below freezing. pita yesterday said 32 is the number. we don't want them outside long-term, like the typical pugs or pit bulls. they have a short coat. don't want them outside at all. but what does it mean for your house? we're hearing of water main breaks all over the country from this long-term cold. the cold is now easing into the ground, into the house. the water pipes are going to bust. you're going to have to turn the water on once in a while to get that water really, really

freezing. if they do freeze, please do not use a propane torch to melt things. do not use that. you can explode the water in that water line right back in your face because the water will literally boil, make high pressure and blow it right back at you. also, humidifiers can make more condensation in your house and that can make a lot of damage if that condensation gets on the floors. your car is going to have probably a very slow start. the batteries are getting low, even at full power, you're not going to get that car to turn over very fast. a dead battery will actually freeze. so if your radiator needs a little bit more fluid in it, make sure you put pure. we'll get to this next hour because i'm already getting a wrap. but i have a lot more tips for people at home. >> stay with me, because on a lighter phot eer note, we did h special visitors, one who had a particular penchant for your job. tell me about that. >> this is what i'm most educated on.

if you want me to do this, i can. >> here's the polar vortex. >> let me tell you what's going on here. condensation down here, precipitation. what happens is the evaporation comes here which causes a cloud storm and rainbows across the world. >> okay. earthquake wherever you want. >> the earthquake is going to go where it's supposed to be. this crack down here. the needle comes down, splits it. that's when it talks. >> is that your best voice? >> this is it. i'm trying to make sense. now what happens is you've got a loss of heat, which causes a massive wave of rapids, which go around the world and it all comes back to my house. >> class four rapids right there. so we are cold right there. you brought them with you, didn't you? >> not only did i bring them with me, i brought somebody here who can make it colder, which is ice cube. this is where ice cube resides, which is here through here.

we're not going to shake this wind until here, which comes up around here. >> he was so fun. he was talking about having unicorns and rainbows. how did he do? i don't think he's coming to cnn. just a hunch. >> you know, weather men never get anything wrong because nothing is scripted. so he was perfect. flawless. >> thank you for playing along. that was kevin hart. he was in studio as well as ice cube. they'll come b coming up later in the show. we talked about everything, from serious topics, the recreational use of pot, to dennis rodman, to whatever that was, with this exclusive interview this morning. roll it. >> people around the world, who do one thing. you're behind a mic right now. we do one thing. >> this is what people are talking about today. dennis rodman, he's combative.

he's emotional. some even saying he suffers a meltdown. you will have to see this right here on cnn. open to innovation. open to ambition. open to bold ideas. that's why new york has a new plan -- dozens of tax free zones all across the state. move here, expand here, or start a new business here and pay no taxes for ten years... we're new york. if there's something that creates more jobs, and grows more businesses... we're open to it. start a tax-free business at startup-ny.com.

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dennis rodman is back at it again. he is back in north korea. he brought a group of former nba players with him. this is new video of rodman leading a practice session featuring the north korean team and the one-time nba stars. new video for you. they're supposed to play this exhibition game tomorrow, which by the way happens to be kim jong-un's birthday. we believe it's his 31st. who really knows? earlier, they joined us for cnn's "new day." rodman lost his cool at one point. he implied kenneth bae did something wrong. didn't quite say what. but first charles smith insisted to our chris cuomo that the trip is about culture and not politics. >> we're not in here for complications. and again, we apologize for what

has kind of the storm that has been created from our presence. we're not apologizing for doing what we do. those people today, the north korean team, many of the citizens, we're connecting people to basketball and people to people. >> that's all good, charles. it's all good. >> you say you get it, but that's all we're doing. >> but the game has been presented as a birthday present to the rule. the game has been presented a as a birthday present to the ruler. i'm not here to fight with you guys. i respect what you're doing. i'm just concerned for the family of this man who is held there and i am concerned, as many americans are, about giving a birthday present to a man who is seen as a despot who just had his uncle executed. dennis, you understand the issue. it's not about hating on american basketball players.

>> yeah, but you can -- you can continue to talk about the different activities that take place here. we are using basketball as a bridge for cultural exchange. and that's all about communication. we're not here to deal with the politics. the date of the game is the date of the game. it was arranged that way. >> the thing about politics. kenneth bae -- if you understand what kenneth bae did. do you understand what he did? >> you tell me. what did he do? >> no, no, you tell me! you tell me! why is he held captive? >> they haven't released any charges. >> why? >> they haven't released any -- >> i would love to speak on

this. >> go ahead. >> you know. you've got ten guys here, ten guys here that left their families, left their families to help this country in a sports venture. ten guys, all these guys here. do anyone understand that? >> we do. and we appreciate that. and we wish them well with cultural exchange. >> no, i'm just saying! i don't give a [ bleep ] -- i don't give a rat's ass what the hell you think. i'm saying to you, look at these guys. look at them! >> don't put it on them. don't use them as an excuse for the behavior that you're putting on yourself. >> they came here! >> you just basically were saying that kenneth bae did something wrong. we don't know what the charges are. don't use these guys as a shield for you. >> listen, listen. >> ain't no shield. let me do this. really? really? i want to tell you one thing.

people around the world -- i'm going to do one thing. you're the guy behind the mic right now. we are the guys here doing one thing. go back to america and take abuse. we're going to take it. do you, sir -- let me know. are you going to take that? guess what, though. one day, one day, this door is going to open. because these ten guys here, all of us, christie, dennis, charles, all these -- i mean, everybody here. if we could just open the door just a little bit for people to come here and do one thing. >> so he wants to open the door. he thinks maybe his presence

will do that. that conversation -- after that conversation, our correspondent asked the white house spokesperson about rodman's comment, specifically on kenneth bae. jay carney says they continue to believe that kenneth bae should be released, granted amnesty. carney would not respond to what he said he understood to be "an outburst." they were considered heroes of 9/11. but now some new york police and firefighters were accused of using that tragedy to steal millions of dollars in this elaborate scam, and police just released evidence in the case. we'll tell you that story. also a teen just over five feet tall weighing about a hundred pounds shot and killed by a police officer. self-defense? police brutality? we will play ryou the 911 call y an officer after the shooting. . open to bold ideas.

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as of today, jp morgan chase owns the federal government $1.7 billion, a fine announced this morning to settle civil and criminal charges stemming from the bernie madoff ponzi scheme. the government says the nation's biggest bank failed to tip the government to madoff's shady dealings. after 9/11, of course our hearts went out to the police, to the firefighters, the first responders who bravely ran

toward ground zero without a single thought for their own safety. when some claimed ptsd afterwards, no one questioned them. but now it turns out some of them may have been lying. prosecutors have indicted more than 100 retired officers accusing them of scamming more than $21 million in a case that included post-9/11 cases, others going back for years and years. susan candiotti has been working this one for me today. she joins us live. what exactly are these other officers accused of? >> brooke, this is just an amazing case. cheating the system. stealing from those who legitimately deserve it. more than half of the accused blaming their inability to work on 9/11 post traumatic stress. prosecutors say it was a sham to rip off taxpayers to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars an alleged scheme going back to 1988.

some appeared in court today and pleaded not guilty. now, here -- here is a video and some photos offered by authorities. they say helped prove their case. for example, the man in the middle, a martial arts instructor, a retired officer allegedly on permanent disability. one guy, another defendant, playing basketball. another one deep sea fishing. another posing on his motorcycle. another one having a ball on a jet ski. now, the manhattan district attorney alleging the accused socked away an average of $50,000 a year in benefits they did not deserve. authorities calling them thieves and liars. >> this fraud not only forced federal taxpayers to finance the lifestyles of new york scammers, it also took away importantly from the already limited resources we have for people who actually suffer from psychiatric disabilities. >> let me jump in, because this

allegation that more than half of these people blame their disability on 9/11, the terror attacks, it's appalling. how did that work? >> authorities say here's how it went. a lawyer who used to be a prosecutor, by the way, working with three other people, including a police union official coached applicants about what to say and do, like i nap all day, or i can't groom myself, or i can't sleep at night. some had legitimate disabilities, but to get full social security disability, they had to prove they could not work at all. when they collect, they pay off the lawyers, and then were warned not to withdraw too much at a time from their banks to avoid suspicion. we've reached out to several lawyers representing some of the alleged ring leaders. no response yet. >> thank you. the frigid weather wreaking havoc on airports across the country with hundreds of delays. but that is not all. take a look at this.

an amtrak train stuck in a snow drift. it wasn't the only one. we will talk with one of those stranded live. plus, a teen with a mental illness shot and killed bay police officer. the officer maintained it was self-defense. but witnesses are telling a different story. that's next. open to innovation. open to ambition. open to bold ideas. that's why new york has a new plan -- dozens of tax free zones all across the state. move here, expand here, or start a new business here and pay no taxes for ten years... we're new york. if there's something that creates more jobs, and grows more businesses... we're open to it. start a tax-free business at startup-ny.com.

bottom of the hour. i'm brooke baldwin. we're talking weather and also talking about these passengers who were finally heading home after spending the night. some of them multiple nights trapped on these stranded amtrak trains. some of whom stopped for 15 hours or more because of these huge snow and ice drifts that were simply blanketing the tracks. this is video shot by someone onboard. showing the drifts as high as the windows. we're joined by a passenger from chicago on the phone. anthony, welcome home. >> thank you so much. i really appreciate it. the weather is frigid in chicago, but i've never been so thankful to be home.

>> i cannot imagine. i read you got two hours sleep. several days journey. a quality cheese-it breakfast from a bus station. how are you doing? >> i am absolutely exhausted right now. i've never had such a travel ordeal. as a reporter myself, we tend to cover these stories. but to actually become the story, believe me, it is no fun. i have five times the amount of sympathy i had before for all the people that got stranded on that cruise ship last year. i was trying to get back from lincoln where we were visiting my wife's family, to chicago, which is normally an easy one-hour flight. turned into a more than 24-hour nightmare. >> so in this might mare, i want you to describe this for me. i hear people were just sleeping bodies covering the floors of the different trains. did you sleep? where did you sleep? >> i was one of those sleeping bodies on the floor of the

train. i found myself a nice cozy nook in the corner of the dining car. that's where i tried to sleep last night. i think i slept about two hours. other people are better at sleeping up right in those chairs, but i'm not one of them, so i staked out my little piece of real estate on the floor. it really wasn't fun. >> the dining car, did you dine? was there food? >> they did serve us a free dinner last night. they called us by rail car back to the dining car to eat the free dinner. so that was a little bright spot. so we get back to the dining car. and we got a really small little bowl of beef stew, which i actually thought was the appetizer until i realized that was the meal. and they wanted the next rail car. i realized the meal was over. i thought it was the appetizer until i realized that was dinner. so that's why we were so hungry

this morning. that's why we had to resort to cheese-its for breakfast. >> hopefully you're eating something nice and huge and warm before you go to bed. you're up and at 'em at 2:00 a.m. you anchor a news show in chicago. anthony ponce, thank you, thank you, thank you. >> not a problem. a police officer shoots and kills a teenager with schizophrenia, and listen to a perspective that you rarely get. an officer is the one who picks up the phone and calls 911 moments after the trigger is pulled. >> i don't know if you've been advised or not, but shots fired. i've had to defend myself against this subject. >> the officer calls in self-defense, but the stepfather of the victim labels it something entirely different. >> i know what happened. i was there. i watched him shoot my son in cold blood right in front of me. there's no changing that.

>> vidal's step dad also called police to their eastern north carolina home. >> wants to fight his mother. a screwdriver. he's not doing so good. she's scared to death of him. >> this is what the victim's family told our affiliate. for at least ten minutes, two officers were speaking with keith, who stood just 5'3", weighing in at 100 pounds. and then a third officer from south port police arrived at the home. stepfather told another affiliate wway that the south port officer said "we don't have time for this." the officers then tased this young man a couple of times, and as he was being restrained, the south port officer shot the high school senior. >> i'm burying my second child right now because somebody murdered him. and this was uncalled for. and this is not how mental health patients should be treated. >> you're a former investigator

for the nassau county police department. you're hearing both sides. what do you make of this? >> i think it's troubling, to say the least. i realize that there's going to be an independent and impartial investigation. they're going to have to take statements again from the family and from the other officers that were involved. you know, perceptively on the surface it seems highly problematic. what this police officer now has to do is justify this shooting. he has to establishly -- establish this completely that there was no other option. >> you talk about the independent investigation. we know that the police chief has had no comment to cnn. the state bureau of investigation now has the case. the county d.a. will make the final decision as to whether or not to file charges against this particular detective. obviously this isn't a first in terms of a police officer shooting a mentally ill person. but can you tell me, lou, what is protocol for an officer in

this kind of situation? >> interestingly enough, and i have a discussion earlier today with a young lady from cnn, we used to unload our weapons, because what we found is that these individuals possess unusual amounts of strength as a result of a rather imbalanced emotional state. >> how would you even know what you're walking into to then unload your weapon? >> you don't. you basically have to rely on the 911 call. if the people are describing this kid as already being in a distraught and emotional state or schizophrenic, you would have layers of police respond to this thing in the event the situation went completely south. the bottom line is what you would hope to do is to restrain the individual, call for a bus, and then transport him to a facility where he can receive proper attention and evaluation. the last thing you want to do is have to resort to shooting

someone. as i mentioned to you earlier. this police officer is going to have to establish the fact that there was pure need in shooting this young man. >> we'll follow and see if he's able to do that. lou palumbo, thank you. coming up, breaking news. excerpts are being revealed from robert gates' memoir. he has some harsh criticism of president obama and his administration, and it specifically involves the war, our troops, and national security. this just in. it is incredibly significant stuff. stay here. hi, i'm terry and i have diabetic nerve pain.

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breaking news as we're getting new information here as robert gates has now penned this memoir. and his new details are coming to light as far as his harsh, harsh kcritique of the obama administration. i know my colleague chris lawrence has been getting up on exactly what this memoir entails as people are beginning to write about this. let's begin, chris, with the harsh critique specifically of the president's leadership. what did he have to say about that? >> this is red meat for folks who want to know what the inner workings of washington are really like. in other words, what people really say about each other behind closed doors. former defense secretary robert gates in this book basically offering a pretty harsh

criticism of president obama's leadership style. at one point he finds him a man of great personal integrity, but when it came to making the decisions on the afghanistan war, specifically surging those 30,000 troops, he says that obama basically didn't believe his own strategy mere months after he made that decision. he said as early as 2010, he had concluded the president didn't think the war was his. that's in direct contrast to candidate obama, who campaigned against the iraq war, but specifically said afghanistan is the place where troops need to be fighting and the u.s. needed to win. >> what about vice president biden? very critical about him. >> yeah. he has some good words for the vice president, but really

blames him for what he calls it poisoning the well against the military. in other words, putting out advice that was contrary to what the military wanted to do in afghanistan and on other issues. he said he finds biden to be a good man personally, but gates felt that biden has been wrong on just about every major foreign policy issue in the recent past. >> and secretary gates talked about the political motivation of the white house, of the obama administration in its decision making. >> yeah. he basically -- he said two things that really sort of jump out at you. one was basically that there was this conversation between obama, president obama and his secretary of state, hillary clinton, in which hillary clinton admitted she sort of opposed the war. because it was -- she was running against obama in the

iowa primary. and that the president sort of admitted that he was being very political, too. and gates says i was sort of astounded to hear them admit such a thing in front of me. he felt sort of disheartened by that. but he also goes on to talk about the advisers around president obama, saying that he -- you get a sense that there is a respect, an underlying respect for president obama. but that gates had a lot of problem with the people around him. of course, some of that can be attributed to the fact that the military wanted a lot more troops. they wanted a bigger surge in afghanistan. there were a lot of people like vice president biden who were saying we need to get out of that country asap. we don't need to surge any troops, much less 40, 50, 60,000 that the military wants. >> with all of the harsh criticism here, i know jack tapper will be all over this. we appreciate you very much on

the latest there. coming up next, though, kevin hart and ice cube right here in studio 7. need i really say more? we talked "snl," we talked dennis rodman, we talked legalizing marijuana. >> first of all, because of this, i want to send a shoutout to colorado, just to take a little off the top.

rapper ice cube, one of the hottest comics in the hollywood circuit teaming up to make a new movie can kevin hart. they are in a comedy about a security guard played by hart who proposes to the sister of an atlanta police officer, ice cube. here's a clip. >> hey, you're white! you're white! you don't fight. >> maybe he just wants into the family. >> i know exactly what he wants. >> the movie looks funny. comes out january 17th.

they joined me in studio and we talked about everything from legalizing marijuana for recreational use in colorado, to dennis rodman, to his emotional outburst this morning on "new day." here's what they had to say. >> i just want to toss some questions to you about what's happening in colorado. >> oh, man! >> come on, come on. >> talking about educational stuff. >> let me begin with marijuana. it's been a couple of days since it's been legalized recreationally in colorado. there's been huge debates over whether this is a good thing. what do you guys think? >> first of all, because of this, i want to basically set up shop in colorado, just take a little off time. just to really see what this problem is about and get into it. to really engulf myself in what's going on there. so the best thing for me was just to move to colorado. >> so he's moving to colorado. >> you think it's a good thing? >> i think california need to catch up. >> california is behind? >> california is behind.

we was ahead a few years ago with the medical thing. and now california is behind. but to each his own. if you're an adult and you of age, i'm not down with any restrictions on people. >> me personally, all i know is i love god, so -- >> what that got to do with anything? >> when you don't know what to do, you just say go to jesus. >> some people disagree with both of you two. there are a lot of critics out there. this is going to be a clip from nancy grace, a former federal prosecutor, a big host on hln. we had a discussion -- >> she does this all the time. >> we had a discussion yesterday and she basically was not so subtly inferring that those who smoke dope are lazy and sit on the sofa and eat their chips. roll it. >> not a good idea. look, i don't want -- when i'm at work, i don't want my babysitter high on pot.

does anybody? do you want your parents, your sister, your brother to be taken care of or driven around by somebody in pot because it's okay in colorado? >> i know people are screaming at the television agreeing you and vehemently disagreeing with you. >> the ones that are disagreeing with lethargic sitting on the sofa eating chips. fat and lazy. there. >> that got a little pickup on internet. >> she just called my grand pop lazy. my grandpop got glaucoma. >> nancy, the babysitter already high anyway. >> i just don't like nancy's angry face. her eyes get big, her face gets narrow. >> so i take it we're disagreeing with nancy? >> everybody's entitled to their own opinion. here's my problem with reporterreport ers excludeing yourself. everyone has a different view on life. so what you think is not what another person thinks. it doesn't make you right, doesn't make them wrong. it's hard for people to come and

find an agreement. got to understand that. some people think that's great, some people don't. me personally, it's not my life. i don't live it. so it doesn't affect me. >> i am not going to sit here and opine, but i want to move on. i want to talk about this new cast member. the biggest comedy's most classic comedy sketch series in this country. it's been five years. what's taken them so long? >> you know, man, people tend to put a race issue on everything. snl has existed for years. i was a person who auditioned for snl. i didn't get it. it had nothing to do with my race at the time. i wasn't right for the part. i'm quite sure several women of all races have been again to snl and turned away. there's literally one part that's available every two seasons, or season and a half, however he does his system, so -- >> whoever is most qualified, no matter the color. >> they've made this the black

woman thing an issue, and i don't think it's fair to other black women, because other black women are like, yeah, yeah, we do need a chance and you have 3,000 black women coming ute for one opportunity that seems to be the black woman part? >> you're saying much ado about nothing? >> congratulations to her, she had an audition, she got the part. not because she was black, she was qualified. dennis rodman in south korea, he has this agreement with kim jong-un. all kinds of human rights atrocities. nuclear weapon, purpose, goes with a bunch of former ballers, he's, no bigs, do you think this is a good idea? should he be over there? >> of course, you know, basketball is a sport that people love all over the world. it's brought people together all over the world, brought many foreigners here to the nba, and

we've got a chance in the olympics, basketball has become very competitive. >> it's unifies, but this is north korea. >> it's a game that brings people together. >> it doesn't bother you? >> at one time the united states wasn't talking to china. >> ping-pong diplomacy. >> sports has always been a way to set down the political things and find some common ground, and you build from there. >> don't ask me that question, because i don't know. quick bulk, much more with kevin and could you, we talk about the movie, works association, and president obama comes up. state here.

all right. where were we? ah, yes talking to rapper ice cube, and comedian kevin hart. we were talking dennis rodman, marijuana legalization in colorado. now these two gave us a behind the scenes scoop about their new movie they filmed in atlanta called "ridealong." we played some word association. take a look. how about ridealong? you guys are in town. >> the funniest movie of the year. >> out january 17th. here's what i want to know. lift the veil behind the scenes. what's it like shooting this film? you shot it in atlanta. >> we shot it in atlanta. after kevin gets to the set. after he leaves the strip club,

gets to the set -- >> gentlemen, gentlemen. you call him the energizer bunny. >> we really get going. >> what you see is what you get et right now. what you see right now is honestly what it was on set. two guys that get along, mutual respect, two guys with natural chemistry and are friends. i think we shine on the camera, and made a movie. i know we made a movie that appeals to everyone. >> your first lead. >> my first huge star -- >> coming a look way, from chicken wings thrown at you? >> yes, buffalo wing. got hit in the fate in atlantic city by a buffalo wing. >> i gotcha. i gotcha. >> can we play word association -- >> is this political? >> you're two smart gentlemen. roll with me. cube and kevin, ready? kevin, you first then cube.

president obama. >> cool man. >> best in the world. >> jinx. >> i'm first she said me. >> no, she said cool cat, then cube. same-sex marriage. >> agreed d. oh, i panicked. >> your turn. >> to each his own. >> kanye west. >> passionate. >> very talented. >> miley cyrus. >> an adult. >> little girl. >> finally cnn. >> controversy. >> uh, you know, it's cool. >> controversy, you should have said controversy with me. >> cnn, you know, there's other people that go more controversial. cnn is everyman's -- >> you don't know nothing, the world and everything. >> saving my job. kevin, awesome meeting you. good luck, cube.

they were great. when the cameras were rolling and even not, they were hilarious. >> ice cube and kevin hart. "ridealong" hits the theaters january 17th. we begin with this. six senate republicans in a sort of unexpected win for the long-term unemployed. dan coats, rob port mast endean heller, susan collins -- all six voted yes. full passage requires another senate vote, plus approval by the hours. and an arizona man has been busted allegedly trying to smuggle a woman into the country in -- you see this picture? it's a suitcase. customs and border protection officers at the port of nogales say they found the thai national hidden underneath clothing after zipping open the suitcase.

the man was traveling from mexico to the u.s. and now faces human smuggling charges. a trucker says this crash happened because of the officer who reported this video, had his blue rights flashing. the trucker says the lights diverted his attention just as the traffic was slowing down. by the time he recovered, auld he could do is swerve, at least that's what the driver was saying. and america's most recognizable skier will not be hitting the slopes next month at the winter olympics. lindsey vonn says her injured knee is too unstable to compete. she tore a ligament 11 months ago and aggravated the injury when she crashed in november. she says she plans to have surgery soon so she will be ready for the world championships in veil next february. in case missed any kind of interview on the show, go to the

brooke blog. as we mentioned, some of the breaking news, bob gates, his memoir coming out. jake tabor will have that coming up on "the lead." it's been a pleasure, now to washington, "the lead with jake tapper" starts right now. et tu, bob gates. freezing would be like a tropical vacation with umbrellas in our drinks, compared to the misery many of us are living in. is this now the worth of it? in national news, you know who didn't believe in president obama's afghanistan strategy? president obama, at least after a while, according to his own former secretary of defense robert gates in a shockingly critical new memoir. and the sports lead. as long as college athletes can read xs and os on a chalkboard