obama first on "new day" at 6:00 a.m. and then on "the lead" at 4:00 p.m. we'd like to thank the waukesha plant in wisconsin. now i'm turning it over to wolf blitzer. >> i'm the governor. the buck stops with me. >> with thousands of cars still abandoned on atlanta highways in the area, one official finally takes responsibility for the management mess that threw a major city into icy gridlock. i'll speak with georgia governor. his first interview is with cnn. stand by. and a football star has accomplished many things despite

being born without half of his limbs. i'm wolf blitzer. you're in "the situation room." the southeast is under siege. chunks of it still in chaos. the thousands who endured near day-long trips home are now trying to retrieve their cars and trucks that they abandoned during snow and ice. some 2,000 vehicles are abandoned. atlanta k atlanta commuters being are being assisted. an apology from governor nathan deal. he's vowing to do more to prevent this from happening again. the governor is here. he'll be joining us in "the situation room" in a few minutes, his first interview with cnn since all of this began. stand by and we'll talk to the governor. first, we want to get some background about what is going

on. our reporter is standing by. what's the latest? >> reporter: wolf, most of the ice and snow on the roads has melted and so that is good news. but more questions remain about how this occurred. hundreds of cars are still stranded on highways and roads around metro atlanta more than 48 hours after a winter storm dumped more than two inches of snow, crippling the area. >> i'm not going to look for a scapegoat. i'm the governor. the buck stops with me. >> reporter: georgi governor nathan deal accepted responsibility on thursday, a day after he defended the state's initial response. >> well, obviously there were errors. if you think that the mayor uses a very descriptive term, somebody blowed a whistle and everybody decided to leave at the same time. that's exactly what happened. whether or not we had blown the whistle earlier, could we have

avoided that i don't know about that. >> did you make the right call? >> well, i think we did based on the circumstances that we knew at the time. >> reporter: some students unable to get home spent the night at area schools on tuesday. highways became impassable, leaving thousands stranded. governor deal is now calling the state's response ahead of the storm inadequate. he says he will work to make sure that this never happens again. >> we will be more aggressive. we will take those weather warnings more seriously. and there will be, as a consequence of that, probably more occasions in which we will declare emergencies where the emergency will not manifest itself. >> reporter: the governor says they are working on an action plan for the next time a winter storm threatens the area. meanwhile, people will have until 9:00 eastern to pick up their cars from where they ditched them on tuesday. >> otherwise they will be towed

and then they'll have to worry about that. let's bring in brian todd. how could something like this happen in the ninth largest city in the united states. what have you learned? >> wolf, we've gotten this from top officials in georgia, the statements that they are making and from emergency management experts that we're speaking to. much of this disaster caused by timing, timing of salt trucks and the timing about when to shut things down. >> reporter: abandoned cars are finally beginning to be cleared from roadways and georgia's governor finally gives a clear answer on what went wrong. >> we did not make preparation early enough to avoid these consequences. >> reporter: experts say that's one critical thing the governor, atlanta mayor, and others did not do. they didn't make the tough calls early enough. >> to shut the schools down, to close the local government, to have businesses shut down obviously in retrospect was not

a good decision. they should have done that early. >> reporter: former fema director placed michael brown after the handling of the federal government's hurricane katrina response. why is it so tough to make those calls well ahead of a storm? experts say one reason, money. >> many school districts receive federal or state aid for every day that a student is in a class. cancel a day of school, you may cost the school district millions of dollars. that's not a decision to be taken lightly. >> reporter: and then there's the cost of overreacting to a storm. >> if you shut down a city like atlanta, houston, or mobile, alabama, and then the temperature stays a the 34 degrees, you've spent a lot of money and everybody thinks that you're an idiot. >> reporter: but the consequence is worse of not taking action. this backhanded endorsement of his performance. >> he's given 16 years of adequate and above adequate public service to our state. >> that came after the admission that he made a, quote, terrible

mistake in not opening the emergency operation center early enough. experts say these are especially tough calls to make many cities like atlanta that only get severe winter weather events every few years. >> and the timing of the deployment of the salt trucks to break up the ice, that was another major issue. >> that's right. the governor thought that the storm would hit further south, when they realized they needed them in the greater atlanta area, they turned them north. but that was well after the traffic started to get choked. >> brian todd, thanks very much. a lot of important lessons to be learned from all of this, where we go from here. joining us now is the governor. thanks very much for coming in. >> nice to be with you. >> so let's look ahead and try to understand some of the major problems that occurred. because when i heard there were 2, 2 1/2 inches of snow and ice in atlanta, i couldn't believe the pictures we were seeing and i'm sure you couldn't either. so what are some of the major lessons you've learned from this

experience looking forward? >> i think the major lesson is that we have to be more proactive at an earlier stage even though we had been led to believe that the majority of the storm would have been south of atlanta. that prediction changed early in the morning of tuesday morning and it was important, i think, that we took it more seriously and made even more pre-emptive actions in terms of spreader trucks on the roadways and the deicing. some of that did occur but certainly not to the extent that later in the day became necessary. >> because that national weather service change in their forecast, going back i think it occurred around 3:38 a.m. so there presumably would have still been time to go ahead and cancel school that day, right? >> well, the decision to cancel schools is not something that the governor has the authority to do. that is local. >> hold on, governor.

i want you to get a glass the water and swallow it and then your voice will be strong and we'll move on. you have some water over there? >> i'm good. >> okay. go ahead. so the decision, you were saying, to close the schools, even though the national weather service changed their forecast at 3:38 a.m., you say what? >> well, the decision to close schools is a decision by local school superintendents. some of the superintendents made the decision to do so. most of those in the greater metropolitan area of atlanta decided to go to school that day. that obviously turned out to be a bad decision. but they were making the same decisions that we had made at the state government level, the same decision that most business people had made to allow their people to come to work. so we all made errors of judgment. i think the lesson to be learned is that we need to take action earlier and even if we are wrong

in taking earlier action, it's probably better than not doing anything early enough. >> because tough balance, like brian todd said, the potential losses for those school districts if you close a day of school and beyond that if you close school for a lot of poorer kids who get their meals at school, if they are not going to have school that day, a lot of those kids are going to have trouble finding food to eat. isn't that right? >> that's true. and there's a lot of other consequences as well. of course, the consequences to businesses that depend on having access to their places of business and to have access to their employees to come to work, those have huge economic effects on the private community as well. >> is atlanta, the greater metropolitan area of atlanta ready for 2 1/2 inches of snow and ice in terms of plows and salting equipment and stuff like that? >> i think we have come a long way. as you may know, the last time we had a storm of this magnitude

was in 2011. actually, the storm on that occasion started on a sunday night before i was innaugarated as governor on monday morning. so my first official act in office was to declare a state of emergency. but having that one come on a weekend and at the evening hours, we were able to predict until school systems not to open. we didn't have that happen this year. it happened just shortly after noon on tuesday. the timing of it made it more difficult and everybody started to leave town at the same time. and we have a lot of traffic on the interstates and the connectors to the interstate all around the greater atlanta area. we have a lot of tractor-trailer traffic coming down our interstates and up our interstates and circling our city on i-285. >> all right. so let's go through some of the

problems that did develop. looking ahead, trying to make sure that we learn from these lessons, the national guard. at what point did you as the governor decide that you wanted to activate the national guard to help all of these stranded folks out there? >> well, our first decision was relating to the thing that we thought was most important and that was the safety of school children. we activated the national guard. we activated the services of our georgia state patrol. school children were being taken off of school buses or buses were being escorted so they could get back to the school or to complete the delivery of those children on their routes. our public safety concerns at that point were the safety of the children and even though some children had to stay in their schools overnight, we had law enforcement personnel there and we have had no reports of any inappropriate activities that occurred. >> as you know, governor, the

national guard -- i don't think they really got involved until around midnight that night. the pictures that were coming in, in the midafternoon, they were pretty horrendous, right? >> they were. it started, as i said, shortly after noon on tuesday and got progressively worse during the afternoon. but the gridlock started fairly quickly. we did ask the national guard to continue their efforts in trying to assist motorists. the reality was the interstates were simply at a standstill. now, since that time, what we have asked them to do is not only did they help escort school buses to get them out of the traffic but today and yesterday they have been assisted in trying to get people who abandoned their vehicles back to those vehicles. most of the interstates -- in fact, all of the interstates -- are now fairly clear and many

people's cars can be moved if we get them back to their vehicles. that has been a major focus today. it's our intention that by tomorrow morning there will not be any vehicles on our interstates or any way associated with blocking access to our interstates. we think that is an achievable goal. >> i've got to tell you, governor, when you hear stories -- we have a lot of colleagues at cnn and the cnn center where you are right now and some of my producers were telling me, 8, 10, 12 hours to get home. normally it would take half an hour, maybe an hour, if that. and they were stranded. you must have seen those pictures, heard all about that going on on tuesday as well? >> i did. and we recognized that at some point we could not get all of them free to be able to drive clear. so we asked the national guard to use their reserve supplies and to contact every vehicle that was stranded to see if they

wanted to leave their vehicle, if they needed water or food or blankets. we tried to do everything under those circumstances that we could. many people did decide to leave their vehicles. others decided to stay with their vehicles. but under any circumstances that long delay and stalling of traffic was hard on everybody and it is with that that i am most apologizing. because i don't want that to happen to any of our citizens. >> and there were a couple of technical problems as well that exacerbated the situation. folks were reporting that they were calling 911, they couldn't get through. you've heard of those complaints, right? >> i have heard of some of those complaints. most of those, of course, were going to local emergency management areas by people who were calling. they were calling the governor's mansion and we were trying to do everything possible. we actually sent one of the troopers who was in the vicinity of the governor's mansion to take a mother with a young

4-month-old child and get them out of the traffic and get them to safety. so people did the kinds of things that you would expect good georgians to do and that is to look after their neighbors and fellow drivers. >> you apologized today. you forthrightly, at your news conference earlier today. some people are criticizing you saying what took so long? >> for the apology? >> yes. >> i actually apologized the first day. and, you know, apologies are something that don't change the circumstances. what we intend to do is to change the circumstances so in the event, such as similar event occurs in the future, that we will react earlier and that we will have the resources to be able to make an effective dent in that problem. >> are you going to fire anyone? >> i think it's way too early to be talking about firing anybody. i don't look for scapegoats as i

said earlier today. i think it's important that we identify what the problems are. we've already had a meeting with our agency heads and we've asked the question, what would you do differently? what do we need to do better and how do we make sure about making sure that we fill all of the holes about future endeavors. >> the georgia emergency management director, he was very, very blunt. he admitted he made some major blunders. later you said he was adequate. his history, as the director, was adequate and above adequate which some are suggesting was less than an endorsement of his work. >> well, he acknowledged and i concur in his acknowledgement that the information and the advice that we receive from our georgia emergency management agency was not appropriate. it was not timed early enough. we were asking questions from the governor's office starting that morning and we were wanting

to take further action. we were being told that further action was not necessary at that time. although, about 10:00 i did issue the order as it relates to state employees to say that they were on a liberal leave policy and if it appeared to them that they needed to leave at that time, they should do so. we have many of our state employees who did so. >> you think he'll keep his job? >> you know, it's not appropriate for me to talk about that at this point in time. i'm more concerned about asking him to come up with an action plan in the future that would avoid a repeat of these circumstances. >> one of the problems that i discern -- i'm not an expert on atlanta by any means -- there's so many constituencies and jurisdictions. what do you think? how did he do? >> oh, i think he did as well as he could under the circumstances. he was faced with the same situation that i was faced with. i thank him and i thank his people for working cooperatively

with their counterparts at the state level. we were all doing everything possible to alleviate the problems that existed. and those problems have, for most purposes, been completely removed. although, there are still stalled vehicles and abandoned vehicles on some of the arteries leading to our interstates. that will be the next outreach beyond just simply clearing the roads and the sides of an interstate. these arterial roads are the focus as well now and that's both what the city of atlanta as well as the state of georgia will be concentrating on. >> a lot of other governors and mayors have been studying what is going to happen in atlanta and the greater metropolitan area because they want to learn a lesson and make sure that this never, ever happens again, and we're all smarter, obviously, with hindsight. if you had a do-over, what would you have done differently? >> i think what we would have done differently is that we

would have declared a state of emergency earlier in the morning. >> that tuesday morning you mean? >> tuesday morning. >> shortly after the weather forecast changed at 3:38 a.m.? >> yes. but even after that point in time we were still receiving messages that maybe all it was going to be was just a simple dusting and maybe up to an inch of accumulation in metro atlanta. obviously it was not a dusting. it was more than an inch, about two inches to 2 1/2 inches and came within a very short window, which also made it more difficult to deal with. >> how much of a wake-up call has this been for your state? >> i think it's been a big wake-you will call. i think it's going to cause all of us to be more aggressive in terms of declaring states of emergency, in terms of deploying our emergency personnel, specially with our department of transportation. they had done some preliminary

treating of the bridges and the overpasses that morning but even that did not prove to be totally effective because the temperatures were so low that when the melting occurred, refreezing followed it very quickly. so it would have had to have been an ongoing treatment of the roads. and once the roads became clogged, we could not even get our d.o.t. trucks to be able to move through the traffic in order to give further salt and sand and other solutions to be applied to the roads. it was just totally at a standstill. >> you're up for re-election this year. are you going to run? >> yes, i am. >> and the major message that you're going to tell voters out there as far as this incident is concerned is? >> that we had learned a lesson from this. we will be better prepared and i think that we have responded appropriately. we got every child home as of

yesterday. they did have some of the children that stayed at home tuesday night in their schools. law enforcement was present so there were no adverse problems from their staying there but a lot of apprehension, as you can imagine, from parents and other family members about the safety of their children. we tried to make sure that they could be assured that their children were safe and they were. we also, i think, have done a good job now of reuniting people who left their cars back to their vehicles so that they can, on their own, be able to get them and return them back home. that's an ongoing effort as well. >> you're reopening schools tomorrow and you're hoping business is back to usual. is that right? >> well, i don't think that we're going to see all of the schools reopening, no. in fact, the announcements that i have seen recently indicate that most of them will remain closed tomorrow because there are still side streets where

buses have to run that are difficult to navigate so i would anticipate that we will see most of the schools probably close again tomorrow. >> and when do you think all of the schools will reopen? >> well, i think they will be able to be reopened on monday. the weather forecast is is that tomorrow is going to be sunshine knee and the weekend will be much warmer and that will help us more than anything else in order to clear the ice and remaining snow on the roadways. >> governor deal, i know you've had your hands full and you've come out and taken responsibility, you've apologized to the people of georgia. we thank you for joining us here on cnn. >> thank you. nice to be with you. >> this has been an awful, awful deal for so many folks. other communities are going to want to hear the lessons to make

sure that they don't commit the same mistakes. governor deal, thank you. coming up, republicans are at a retreat to come up with an immigration reform. new details. also, going into super bowl weekend. the amazing story of a high school football star who is accomplishing extraordinary things despite being born without half of his limbs and there's an amazing political twist to this story. ♪ [ male announcer ] what kind of energy is so abundant, it can help provide the power for all this? natural gas. ♪ more than ever before, america's electricity is generated by it. exxonmobil uses advanced visualization and drilling technologies to produce natural gas... powering our lives... while reducing emissions by up to 60%. energy lives here.

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happening now, new details on republicans' struggle to come

up with immigration reform. our chief correspondent dana bash is there at the meeting in maryland. dana, what's going on? >> reporter: what's going on is house republican leaders are trying to convince their rank and file to be the party of not opposition. a three-day gop retreat along the icy water's of maryland's chesapeake bay where they are on slippery political terrain, immigration reform. >> it's been turned into a political football. i think it's unfair. so i think it's time to deal with it. >> reporter: house gop leaders are talking about cnn is told it would not bar event citizenship for those who qualify under existing employment and family categories.

none of that would be allowed until criteria is met. >> get people right with the law without producing amnesty or some special pathway. >> reporter: but gop leaders are facing controversy. do you believe they should get legal status? >> if you do say that somebody right now here illegally can jump ahead of somebody waiting in line, i think that creates problems for people coming here legally. >> reporter: but republican sources tell cnn there is broader reluctance to pushing immigration reform this year than gchl op leaders anticipate. they want to stay united on their top issue, fighting obamacare. still, others tell us that's short-sided. >> we shouldn't waste the next eight months and refuse to start tackling this issue. >> reporter: whether republicans with end this retreat with consensus is an open question.

if they do, then there's the question of timing. one thing that they are discussing is waiting to do any of this until after this year's primary season to protect their conservatives from challenges from the right. wolf? >> dana over in cambridge, maryland, thanks very much for that. coming up, federal prosecutors will seek the death penalty for the surviving suspect in the boston marathon bombings. i'll speak with the mother of two of those bombing survivors. we'll get her reaction. and we're also digging into the bill that's causing a huge controversy costing almost 1 trillion of your tax dollars over the next decade. how much of that may be wasted money. ♪ driving rock music music stops ♪ music resumes ♪ music stops ♪ music resumes ♪ ♪

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surviving suspect in the boston marathon dzhokhar tsarnaev may get the death penalty. one of the victim's mothers is joining us on the phone.

when you heard the attorney general say that dzhokhar tsarnaev could face the death penalty, what went through your mind? >> you know, we're going forward in the right direction. one step forward in the recovery process. it's just -- the option is out there on the table for the jurors, that's the way it goes. >> how are your boys doing? >> you know, they are doing amazing. they are doing okay. they have accepted what has happened and they are strictly and only focused on their recovery and that's all they focus on. for me, you know, i'm sad by it all. i feel bad for them. our family life has changed so for me in the recovery process, i'm hoping that this step forward is, you know, going forward it will be -- i'm not even sure. it's kind of -- i don't know. >> you would have been disappointed if they would have just sought life in prison, for

example, instead of the death sentence? is that what you're saying? >> i'm just glad that it's there on the option, that the option is there for the jurors to decide. >> and you say you want to be in court every single day of that trial. is that right? >> absolutely. >> tell us why. >> i just think it's important for me -- i'm trying to make sense of what happened that day. my boys went to watch a friend watch the marathon. one came home five days later and the other 32 days later. i want to try to somehow make sense of how somebody could do this to all of these people. >> are they going to come with you, your sons? >> no. >> but you'll be there to watch every step of the way. it's an emotional story, i'm sure, for everyone. even now, obviously. the pain really never goes away what happened that day. is that right? >> it doesn't for me. i watch my sons and it's sad. i mean, their lives have

changed. you know, it's just -- and they are okay with it. they have accepted it but i can't. i can't. you know, those are my kids and they went to watch a marathon on the streets of boston and it shouldn't have happened. >> do you have any understanding at all why this happened? any motivation that these two brothers that they may have had, one is dead, the other one now facing the death sentence if convicted? >> i don't, which is why i'm hoping that maybe in some form of -- you know, i'm trying to make sense of it. i don't know if i'll ever understand. i don't know. i mean, but for me i think it's important and i will be there every day. >> well, miss liz norden, nice talking to you. give our love to your two sons and everyone in the boston area,

our hearts go out to all of you. appreciate you joining us for a few minutes. >> thank you so much. thank you. >> thank you. and coming up, your taxpayer dollars funding research on christmas trees. it's just one controversial provision on the farm bill. and you won't believe the other things that the government is spending your money on. plus, it's one of the best high school kickers in the country right now and he has no arms. you're going to see why he doesn't let anyone call his disabled. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. yeah. everybody knows that. did you know there is an oldest trick in the book? what? trick number one. look-est over there. ha ha. made-est thou look. so end-eth the trick. hey.... yes.... geico. fifteen minutes could save you... well, you know.

it's called the farm bill but it impacts every american. the bill is causing a huge controversy right now. it's costing 1 trillion of your tax dollars. joe johns is working the story for us. joe, why the uproar over the new farm bill? >> wolf, first of all, it's a humungous bill, $100 million a

year over ten years. it gives taxpayer dollars to the farm industry. you may think congress is reforming the way it does business because the bill gets rid of direct payments to farmers which has been discredited for years but if you look a little closer, what congress is taking away with one hand, they are giving back in the form of crop insurance and a lot of it benefits the richest farming interest and not the little guys, according to the watchdog groups that follow this stuff, wolf. >> isn't it easier to adjust crop insurance for farmers than just giving them direct payments? at least it looks better, right? >> okay. that's the logic. but the devil is in the details. here's some examples singled out by the nonpartisan watchdog group. item one is sushi rice. making the taxpayers prop up the sushi rice business. the bill guaranteed prices for growers of the rice. the government is guarantees 115% of the market price for the product. cat fish farming, the government

is ensuring that catfish farmers earn a profit every year in states like mississippi and arkansas. pennycress it's a weed that depletes the soil but it's now a crop to receive crop insurance subsidies. and christmas trees. a bill like this in congress is often labeled a christmas tree because there's so many unusual things attached to it but in this bill there's an actual christmas tree fund for fresh cut christmas trees. wolf? >> who doesn't like christmas trees. everyone likes christmas trees. the government is picking winners and losers in the farm business like the old days? >> yes. the big losers in the bill are recipients of the food stamp program, which has trimmed only slightly and smaller time family farmers who can't compete with the big farming interest which,

of course, make out big in the bill. "the washington post" editorial page called on the president to veto it today but the white house suggests he will sign it if it reaches his desk. >> a little more legislative process to go through. joe, thanks for that background. let's get more now with lisa and steve and chandler of the farmers union. lisa, why is this so important? we heard background but you've been studying it. >> this bill affects what we eat, what the prices are for most things in the grocery store that are essential. joe hit on it. it picks winners and losers based on 1932 version of what was important. a handful of crops are getting subsidies. like wheat. we all need bread. but think about corn. that's getting subsidies and that's why high-fructose corn

syrup is so cheap and it's not good for us. on the other hand, we need to know what is in our food. this says we need to know where our meat was born, slaughtered, and processed. that's an important step in this bill. >> i've been watching, steve, long enough that any piece of big legislation, you're always going to find some junk in there, stuff that isn't worth taxpayer dollars. but let's talk about sushi rice, christmas trees, some of the stuff that we just heard joe report. how wasteful is this bill? >> wolf, you're talking about a nearly trillion dollar bill as you indicated and while people are talking about cutting these direct payments which is about basically $40 billion over the ten years, a little more than that, they are plowing a lot of that into crop insurance subsidies. some of it is not the small board things. we're talking about provisions that are going to guarantee farmers up to 90% of their revenue from year-to-year. well, what american wouldn't have wanted a policy like that

in the past few years with the way the economy has gone and there's provisions where they actually cut it in the bill, like the sheep improvement center and voted on a house floor and eliminated $1 million of that and came back with $1.5 million. >> you represent the farmers, chandler, a lot of folks look at this and say at a time when we've got to cut back, isn't there a lot of waste in this bill? >> this is actually a very good bill, though. i think one of the key points that we've just left out is that it saves $23 billion in deficit reduction over the next ten years and and because of the program in this bill it affords every american to own 7% of their disposalable food purchases compared to france where it's 14% or even double that and then as lisa mentioned it maintains consumer rights. >> lisa, a lot of people don't realize that almost 15 million americans rely on food stamps.

and the food stamp program is part of this farm bill. it's going to be trim somewhat. how serious is that problem? >> right. there are people who once this bill is enacted and we expect it to be enacted, they will see $90 less in food stamps every month. the thing that is complicated on capitol hill, that cut will only happen in 16 states in the district of columbia as part of the compromise. for those people affected, it's a very big deal. >> i'm worried about the people who need this bill to survive. >> it's ironic that it's $16.6 billion saving half of that being borne by the food stamp recipients and not only that, two-thirds of the savings is in the second five years of the bill or after the bill is passed. and so we're looking at a very costly program and -- >> can't we find better ways to find money than food stamps? >> when you look at the amount, 79% of the bill is food stamps.

the farmer union came out and supported the bill with 4 billion in cuts but eliminating the direct payments and streamlining many of the programs, that's where we come >> these guys actually were for lower cuts. these guys want as much cuts in some ways and cut the deficit as you want. honestly, they've got to come from somewhere. >> presumably more will be joining them. guys, thanks very much. coming up a star player with no arms. his story is as inspiring as amazing. you'll meet him when we come back. to real teeth. they're about 10 times softer and may have surface pores where bacteria can multiply. polident kills 99.99% of odor causing bacteria and helps dissolve stains. that's why i recommend polident. [ male announcer ] cleaner, fresher, brighter every day. for what reality teaches you firsthand. in the face of danger,

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as we head into super bowl weekend, we have an amazing story. where football and politics intersect. the extraordinary achievements of a high school football star who was born without half his limbs but isn't letting that limit him. the things he's accomplishing on and off the field give us all

some new perspective. this being washington, there's also a striking political twist to this tale. poppy harlow is here with this story. tell our viewers what you learned. >> there is a twist. you'll have to wait till the end to see that, hint, think presidents. when it comes to isaac lufkin he's a 14-year-old tackling huge challenges on and off the field with what i would call absolute grace. there's a lot more to this kick. and a lot more to isaac lufkin than his winning field goals. >> i want to play in the nfl. the ravens or -- >> reporter: you want to keep wearing purple? >> yeah, purple. >> reporter: he's still riding high from an undefeated season and the freshman football state title. he led his division in on-side kick recover es this year. remarkable considering this is what isaac goes through just to

suit up. you don't want anyone's pity. >> no, i don't like pity. pity just makes me weaker. >> reporter: he means it. >> it makes me feel like i can't do it. if i drop my bag, i pick it back. you. i drop it again i pick it back up. if i can't do it, no one else can do it sooner or later. >> i'm filled with pride because he's my little football star. >> reporter: there's no question isaac has overcome an unimaginable challenge, moving beyond the arms he was born without to the perseverance he was born within. >> isaac lufkin. >> as soon as he walked in, i pointed at him and said, you're our players kicker. i would not be the guy who would want to tell him he couldn't do something, put it that way. >> reporter: what does he do for his teammates? >> i think he gives them hope. i mean, you see a guy with no

arms strap up and put a helmet on and launch himself into a violent pile, you know, and get up and smile. >> reporter: he calls isaac's knack for accuracy a skill that's tough to teach. you want to do more than kick. >> yes, i want to be a defensive lineman. >> reporter: hit people. >> yeah, hit people. they can't grab my arms, they can't grab my jersey. the only thing they can do is actually block, but i can still crawl under them. it's not like they can sit on me. they got to let me through. >> reporter: his determination was clear from the beginning. this is isaac learning how to dress himself. >> i give up. >> no, don't give up. there you go. >> very good. >> reporter: here he is throwing a football as a toddler with his shoulder. you never gave up. it wasn't easy for him. but he never gave up. is he disabled? >> no, i don't find him disabled at all. and i never looked at him that

way. i always knew the sky was the limit. >> reporter: today isaac can do nearly anything on his own. eggs sunny side up, no problem. high five. that's awesome. >> he's not always going to have somebody there to do everything for him, so that was my greatest gift to him, was to be independent. >> reporter: he's learned how to do remarkable things with his feet. eating ice cream, playing the keyboard. even video games. as a child, isaac navigated the world with his toes. now in high school, he has also learned to use his chin, shoulder and what he calls his stub. there have been bullies. >> this one kid, he just wouldn't stop. he's whack me in the back of the head with notebooks, shove me on to the ground, then laugh at me and take my sleeves and tie them around my throat. >> reporter: but football and

his killer on-side kick have brought a new sense of pride and acceptance. some say you're like a secret weapon on the team. is that true? >> yeah, it's because at first i do my on-side kick, i'll run up to a guy and he'll have to block me and he'll fly backwards like i'm easy to block. next time i'll juke him and he'll hit a guy like he doesn't expect it, then i get him at his weakest point. >> reporter: what have you done for the football team this year? >> now they can't be lazy. no matter what, they have new excuse not to show up to practice, or throw the ball, run the ball and block. because if i can kick a ball and set it up and do my own thing, they can do their own thing. >> reporter: even more astonishing, isaac is not the first armless kicker at classical. exactly 50 years ago in 1963, chris shuman led the classical varsity football team to the state championship title prompting president kennedy to send him this letter.

it's his example that has opened the door for isaac to dream big. >> i want to see if we can go undefeated for four years straight. >> reporter: is he destined for greatness in one way or another? >> i think he's already achieved it. he's overcome things that i don't know if i could overcome. and he's managed to bring our whole program to another level. >> i knew it before he was born, and he will be great. and he will about everything that everybody said he wasn't going to be. >> reporter: and in so many ways, he already is. he absolutely is. hats off to you, isaac. and wolf, you know, i was just so happy to see he could get beyond the bullies, through all of that. he's so well liked. he's so popular at his school. people love him. and he brings something that no one else can bring, to his team, his classmates, to his family. he's a remarkable young man. >> amazing, 1963 president kennedy sent a letter to another armless kid at that same -- >> at the same high school that also won the state championship that year. >> i'm hoping our friends at the

white house are watching right now. because you know what president obama needs to do. >> right, right. you know, i hope they're watching as well. we really are going to make sure the two of them get to meet the two armless kickers but chris shuman, the kicker in 1963 said it was that letter from president kennedy that made him move here to d.c., join the public sector. he's been working for the government for 41 years. he said to me today the story about isaac brought back a flood of memories. we're going to make sure the two of them get to meet. >> should get together. i suspect president obama will follow in president kennedy's footsteps. >> we shall see. we'll be watching. more news coming up right now. happening now, a cnn exclusive. president obama's first interview since his state of the union address. so how much can he actually get done by sidestepping congress? he's sharing new details about his plan to go it alone. plus, rising terror threats at

the olympics in russia and around the globe. top u.s. officials are warning there's a growing danger of deadly attacks. and inside iran. an exclusive look behind the walls of the former u.s. embassy in tehran decades after americans were taken hostage there. the iranians are now using it in a rather disturbing way. i'm wolf blitzer. you're in "the situation room." right now president obama's on the road promoting his plan for a year of action that he outlined in his state of the union address. a bit earlier he sat down for his first interview since that big speech on tuesday night. he spoke exclusively with cnn anchor jake tapper in wisconsin. jake? >> wolf, the president sat down with me right here at this ge plant in waukesha, wisconsin, where he signed that executive order. this is his first interview following the state of the union tuesday and we touched on a

whole range of topics. but i began by asking him just how far he thinks this new go it alone attitude towards congress will actually get him and get us. thanks for doing this, mr. president. >> great to be with you, jake. >> reporter: your big push in the state of the union and here is whatever you cannot accomplish with congress you will take executive action or issue executive orders. how much can you really accomplish doing that? >> well, first of all, my big push is making sure we're focused on opportunity, making sure that every single day, all of us in washington are trying to think about ways that we can help folks get good jobs, make sure that they're trained for the good jobs that are out there, make sure that those jobs pay, make sure our kids are getting a great education. those are the issues that the american people still very much are concerned about. and obviously, there's going to be more that we can do if congress is able to break through some of the gridlock. and if wire able e're able to, example, pass immigration reform. that's going to add growth to our economy, reduce our

deficits. >> reporter: you don't seem confident that's going to happen. >> i actually thing we have a good chance. >> reporter: i mean the jobs issue. >> there are some issues where it's going to be tough for them to move forward. and i'm going to continue to reach out to them and say, here are my best ideas. i want to hear yours. but as i said in the state of the union, i can't wait. and the american people, more importantly, cannot wait. so when, for example, yesterday i signed an executive order helping to set up starter retirement accounts for folks who may not have retirement accounts on the job, it is not as big as if we change overall our tax codes so that we're providing more incentives for working families to save, the same kinds of incentives that folks at the very top have, but it's still significant. it still makes a difference. what we're doing here today, talking about job training. we actually already had a lot of resources for job training. the problem is it's not well coordinated and oftentimes it's not funneled to those programs

that are allowing companies to help and colleges design the training so that somebody who goes through it knows they're going to get a job at the other end of it. tomorrow is a great example of something we're doing that doesn't involve any legislation or funding. we know that one of the biggest problems right now in the jobs market is the long-term unemp y unemployed. >> people won't hire them because they've been unemployed so long. >> because they've been unemployed so long folks are looking at that gap in resume and they're weeding them out before these folks even get a chance at a an interview. what we've done is to gather together 300 companies just to start with including some of the top 50 companies in the country, companies like walmart and apple and ford and others to say, let's establish best practices. do not screen people out of the hiring process just because they've been out of work for a long time. we just went through the worst recession since the great depression. so i'll be convening a meeting

where a number of these top companies will be coming in, agreeing to these best practices and we'll have an opportunity to you, you know, encourage people to come in. all those things cumulatively will have an impact. will we have more of an impact if we can get congress, for example, to pats a minimum wage law that applies to everybody as opposed to me through executive order making sure that folks who are contractors to the federal government have to pay a minimum wage? absolutely. that's why i'll keep reaching out, but i won't wait for them. >> your critics say this has diminished expectations. i've been covering you for a long time. i remember during the campaign presidency being a moment when the rise of the oceans would slow and heal. now you're talking about your pen and phone and executive orders. do you think you were naive back then or have you recalibrated

your expectations and ambitions? >> part of it we've got a lot of that stuff done. we've got, in this country, a health care reform that has already signed up millions of people and make sure that everybody who is watching, anybody who already has insurance, will not be dropped because of a pre-existing condition. if they don't have health insurance, they can get it on healthcare.gov. we've made enormous strides on the education front, changing our student loan program so that millions more young people get student loans. and so part of what's happened is that checklist that i had when i came into office, we have passed a lot of that and we're implementing a lot of it. where we haven't, we've taken some administrative action. so on climate change which has to be a top priority for all of us, we're going to make sure that one of the biggest sources of the pollutants that are causing climate change are regulated by regulations on existing power plants. that's a big piece of business. and so in no way are my

expectations diminished or any am bigs diminished, but what is obvious is we've got divided government right now. the house republicans in particular have had difficulty rallying around any agenda much less mine, and in that kind of environment, what i don't want is the american people to think that the only way for us to make big change is through legislation. we've all got to work together to continue to provide opportunity for the next generation. >> and wolf, of course you can see much more of the interview tomorrow on cnn's new day at 6:00 a.m. eastern and again on "the lead" at 4:00 p.m. eastern. >> jake, thanks very much. now to the growing threat of terrorism at the winter olympics in russia and beyond. just eight days before the opening ceremonies. new arrests and new warnings that al qaeda is planning new attacks. barbara starr. >> how serious might it be? the u.s. military and the russian military are now

promising to stay in touch throughout the sochi games. it is just a concern and worry that keeps coming. russia arrested two men it says were accomplices in those deadly bomb attacks last month in volgograd. a town about 400 miles from the site of next month's olympics. it's the latest crackdown on potential threats to the sochi games. >> we have seen an uptick in the threat reporting regarding sochi. and this was what we expected, given where the olympics are located. >> reporter: u.s. counterterrorism chief matthew olson believes the olympic site itself will be safe. >> the greater threat is to softer targets in the greater sochi area and in the outskirts beyond sochi where there is a substantial potential for a terrorist attack. >> reporter: train stations, buses and shops may be impossible to protect. the insurgency in russia just the latest in the global threat

from violent militants either inspired by or affiliated with al qaeda, a battle the u.s. may not be winning. >> i can't say that the -- you know, the threat is any less. i think our ability to discern it is much improved over what it was in the early part of the 2000 period. so i think that dispersion and decentralization actually creates a different threat and a harder one to watch and detect. >> reporter: in somalia, a u.s. drone fired a hellfire missile on sunday to try to kill ahmed gadani, the leader of the al qaeda affiliate al shabaab. in yemen al qaeda in the arabian

peninsula is on the rise. u.s. officials worry the government of yemen has failed to take action. aqap has already plotted against the u.s. with the 2009 underwear bomber attack. in syria concerns are at an all-time high that foreign fighters are there and could return to europe or the u.s. to conduct attacks. >> in excess of 7,000 foreign fighters have been attracted from some 50 countries, many of them in europe and the mideast. >> reporter: the u.s. intelligence community now calculates that al qaeda affiliates are active in at least 12 countries. syria remains a vital concern that militants there could use it as a staging ground to try and stage future attacks against the u.s. wolf? >> and today there was another u.s. warning to syria on chemical weapons. i thought the syrians had agreed to give up their chemical

weapons. >> reporter: yeah, you would have thought so, huh? they did agree but are they really doing it seems to be the question now. so far only about 5% of what syria has promised to ship out of the country has even been moved to ports and loaded on ships. they are woefully behind. the state department, the pentagon coming out today voicing a lot of concern about this. the syrians say they need more help. they need more equipment. the obama administration's view is the syrians are bargaining for time and they want them to stop it. wolf. >> barbara starr with those disturbing reports. thanks very much. other news we're following, the governor of georgia now is personally accepting responsibility for the snow disaster that paralyzed the city of atlanta and the other parts of the state. i spoke with the republican governor nathan deal just a little while ago in "the situation room." his first cnn interview since the storm hit on tuesday. listen to this. how much of a wake-up call has this been for your state?

>> i think it's been a big wake-up call. i think it is going to cause all of us to be more aggressive in terms of declaring states of emergency, in terms of deploying our emergency personnel, especially with our department of transportation. they had done some preliminary treating of the bridges and the overpasses that morning, but even that did not prove to be totally effective because the temperatures were so low that when the melting occurred, refreezing followed it very quickly. so it would have had to have been an ongoing treatment of the roads. and once the roads became clogged, we could not even get our d.o.t. trucks to be able to move through the traffic in order to give further salt and sand and other solutions to be applied to the roads. it was just totally at a standstill. >> yes, it was. though temperatures today are

starting to climb in the atlanta area. the city, though, is not back to normal by any means. effortses to tow abandoned vehicles away begin tonight. still ahead, it was dramatized in the movie "argo" but these days few westerners get inside the former u.s. embassy in iran where american hostages were seized in 1979 and held for 444 days. now cnn is getting an exclusive tour and we're learning more about governor chris christie's 2016 political machine. was he really in the dark about the bridgegate scandal? a new report is fueling some fresh news.

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in iran right now the former u.s. embassy where americans were taken hostage decades ago and held for 444 days is being used in an outrageous way. an exclusive look inside. jim sciutto is joining us live from tehran. what did you see? >> reporter: well, i'll tell you, wolf, it feels like a place where time stopped. you walk into this building, much of it preserved just the way it was 35 years ago when the embassy was taken over. you have all these relic, all these teletype machines, giant fax machine, soundproof meeting rooms, secure communications rooms, all of which they display as prized possessions now. but also, as you're hearing the talk from the guide leading you around, the points of view are relics as well. they're still trying to sell this idea that the embassy was a den of spies and that as a result the takeover was justified. here's what the guide told me when i asked him that question, does he still feel it was right

what happened in 1979. do you still believe it was justified to hold the americans as hostages? >> translator: definitely, yes. >> reporter: and why? >> translator: based on international law, the u.s. embassy should function as an embassy, not interfere in internal affairs. it's like somebody is snooping around your house. what would you do? >> reporter: they're also selling some more recent conspiracy theories. there's a whole mural painted in the staircase there selling the idea that 9/11, that the u.s. was actually behind 9/11. frankly, wolf, i just didn't have the patience to listen to that. but i'll tell you, many iranians have grown disillusioned with the revolution. this place is not the magnet for average iranians as it used to be. i wondered how many iranians are still listening to this point of view as well. >> yeah, i suspect there's an increasing number who aren't. but we'll see. jim sciutto in tehran for us. it's worth noting, by the way, that the united states asked for

custody of the old iranian embassy in washington. the building remains pretty much as it was. they've not made it into some sort of propaganda scene or anything like that. it's there, presumably if the u.s. and iran were ever to resume diplomatic relations, that embassy would be brought out of mothballs, if you will, and the iranians would have their embassy on massachusetts avenue here in washington. just ahead, governor chris christie's team and their political moneyball. an inside look at the 2016 campaign operation and its response to the bridgegate scandal. hey guys! sorry we're late. did you run into traffic? no, just had to stop by the house to grab a few things. you stopped by the house? uh-huh. yea. alright, whenever you get your stuff, run upstairs, get cleaned up for dinner. you leave the house in good shape? yea. yea, of course. ♪ [ sportscaster talking on tv ] last-second field go-- yea, sure ya did. [ male announcer ] introducing at&t digital life. personalized home security and automation. get professionally monitored security

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to seal out more food particles. nwas the most watchedage otelevision event ever.s so, what's next? the upcoming winter games from sochi. where every second of nbc universal's coverage will be available on every device. on tv, online or streaming on the nbc sports live extra app. beginning february 6th,

experience the winter games everywhere. welcome to what's next. comcast nbcuniversal we're getting a new fly on the wall look at chris christie's operation about that bridgegate scandal in new jersey. it zeros in on the question many

people were asking, how could christie not know what was going on. part of the team that wrote this lengthy article in the newspaper. thanks very much for joining us. >> thanks, wolf. great to be here. >> one of the conclusions, this political inner circle of governor christie's team they were in very close proximity not only amongst themselves but with the governor physically, if you will. raising the question, how could he not have known what was going on? >> i think there's still certainly the sense that the possibility i think that he did not know because there's no direct evidence yet. that said, i think what we tried to do was sort of look under the hood, if you will, of his political operation, which is, by any stretch of the imagination, very impressive for a state level operation, the kind of thing you would think is the precursor to a 2016 run. i mean, they talk about mini-ohios and mini-floridas, they talk about moneyball in terms of trying to assess towns that were swing towns that

thissy could maybe persuade or win over. so a very sophisticated operation. >> they had an eye towards 2016, the presidential race. >> that was always the assumption. especially when he began to really rise on the national stage as a republican who could win bipartisan support, i think it became part of the mission statement, if you will that he should try to run up the score almost in terms of re-election. >> what was the conclusion, though, that you and your team had as far as the blame game, if you will. we know a couple of the staffers were fired. others were implicated, if you will. there's subpoenas going on right now, full scale investigation. bottom line conclusion was -- >> bottom line the conclusion is that you can't jump to conclusions quite yet, but that everything that has been reported so far suggests that certainly it's a very top-down tight-knit operation in which the governor had a lot of control and took a lot of interest in politics. so sort of the gap in terms of

credibility, you know, is beginning to narrow a bit. >> here's a new poll, "the washington post"/abc news poll on 2016 the presidential potential presidential race, republicans out there. paul ryan at 20%. jeb bush, chris christie is now down to 13%. he suffered politically significantly as a result of this scandal. >> well, having just covered the new york city mayor's race where the polls were often not quite right, i think it's a little premature to sort of write his political epitaph for the moment. but clearly what is troubling for people who support governor christie are inclined to like him is the sense that he built up his reputation as someone who was a bipartisan person, above the fray, who viewed politics as kind of petty, now there's an alternate narrative that's emerging in which he's portrayed as vindictive or as a bit of a bully. if that takes root and there are

other e-mails or other documents that come out, then that really is damaging and could last for a longer period of time. >> those are all ifs, obviously, so far there's absolutely no smoking gun. that's your conclusion as of right now, right? >> right. and there are multiple investigations or inquiries that are beginning to unfold. u.s. attorney is looking into it, you've got a joint legislative committee and there could be other things. so it is still very premature to kind of write -- to come to any conclusion, really. >> that would be very, very premature. david chen of "the new york times." thanks vep for joining us. >> thank you very much. >> that's it for me. i'm wolf blitzer in "the situation room." "crossfire" with guests neera tanden and amy kremer starts right now. tonight on "crossfire" -- the president goes it alone. and in an exclusive interview with cnn says -- >> i can't wait. and the american people, more

importantly, cannot wait. >> while republicans talk of compromise, even on immigration. >> turned into a political football. i think it's unfair. >> will conservatives let their leaders make a deal? on the left, donna brazile, on the right, newt gingrich. in the "crossfire" -- neera tanden, who worked with the obama administration, and amy kremer of the tea party express. is reaching for compromise a slap in the face to the grassroots? tonight on "crossfire." welcome to "crossfire," i'm donna brazile on the left. >> i'm newt gingrich on the right. in the "crossfire" tonight, an obama democrat and a tea party republican. after five years of failing to get the economy going, the president today used an exclusive interview with cnn's jake tapper to reveal his latest gimmick. let's listen to the president.

>> what we've done is to gather together 300 companies, just to start with, including some of the top 50 companies in the country, companies like walmart and apple and ford and others, to say, let's establish best practices. do not screen people out of the hiring process just because they've been out of work for a long time. >> so if you're a new college or high school graduate, you're out of luck because the president's bias, you now have to wait a year and a half until you're among the long-term unemployed to get a job. you know, donna, fact is he's tryingmicks because he won't go back to really trying to help the economy grow so everybody can have a job. >> businesses have created over 8 million jobs, 2.2 million in the last year alone. i think the economy is moving. we've just got to get the republicans out of the way so we can get things moving along. let's talk about giving the american people a raise.