east starting to eat more of the delicio delicious commodity. coc cocoa needs to increase or we could be in for a shortage. the average american consumer spent nearly $150 in 2012 on sweets. that's it for "the lead." i'm jake tapper. i'm turning it over to brianna keilar who is filling in for wolf blitzer. see you next week. happening now, travel delays and an epic winter storm is causing chaos and even now more paralyzing snow is on the way. plus, hillary clinton versus the media. cnn examines unseen coverage. u.s. speed skaters are blaming their poor performance on the racing suits that were supposed to give them an advantage.

we'll have the latest from sochi. wolf blitzer is off. i'm brianna keilar and you're in "the situation room." one of the most miserable winters is getting even worse. at least 16 people have died in this snow apocalypse that's hammered nearly a third of the nation. a massive 100-car pileup that shut down the pennsylvania turnpike appears to be weather-related. we have team coverage of the extreme weather and this travel chaos. first, joining us live in reagan national airport outside of washington. what's it like there? >> reporter: well, if this line is any indication, you can see how bad it's been.

yesterday was the first day for air travel yet this season. this is what the day after looked like. this storm for travelers, just brutal. >> we've been bumped about -- this will be about the second or third time. i'm trying to quit counting. >> reporter: more than 6500 flights were canceled thursday, over 1100 flights today. >> that's what was necessary because this storm was so broad and impacted so many key cities and so that's really why those numbers get so big. >> reporter: add to that, thousands of delays. patience wore thin. >> our original flight was this morning and it was delayed and still is but it won't let us get a ticket because our connecting flight in philadelphia is going to be rescheduled. we're in a line to talk to an agent. >> reporter: from charlotte to newark, philadelphia, new york and washington, d.c., thousands

are still stranded today with no idea when they could get home. >> the circumstances are not preferred but they are what they are and i'll tell you what, this is, to a certain extent, deluxe accommodations for what i'm dealing with right now. >> reporter: as the sun came up this morning, airports were still working to clear snow from the runway and airlines still working to clear boards like this. >> the biggest sin if you can have one in a big event like this is let a one-day event become a two-day event or a three-day event become a four day event. >> reporter: passengers stuck at the airport are still waiting. >> i took time off of work. i'm going to san francisco for valentine's day and it's pretty much over with. >> reporter: one thing flying freely, anger on social media. one irate passenger tweeted, "stop canceling flights, philly airport". >> i'm supposed to officiate my sister's wedding.

it was a small wedding but it's incredibly emotional not to be there. >> reporter: this winter has been so bad for travelers and it's cost them big. nearly $3 billion this season alone. brianna? >> sunlen serfaty, thank you. chad myers is in our severe weather center. chad, why are so many airports still backed up. sunlen called it the hangover. >> you know, it is. because all of the pilots that are there may not be with the equipment that they need to fly. pilots are assigned and classified and qualified on certain planes. a he if a dc-9 is sitting there and you've got an md-88 pilot there, they can't fly those two planes. it all goes back to where the pilots need to be and why they didn't get there. they didn't get where they were supposed to be because the flight that was supposed to take them to atlanta didn't take them

there so there's a plane there with no pilot. there are 28,000 flights on a regular day. 2,000 or less than that canceled today. we're still flying more than 90% of the flights on this board right now. but because we had so many planes that were canceled and so many people that were supposed to be on those planes and so many planes that only have three empty seats on any given day, if you can imagine, a million people trying to get to that one -- or those three seats or the next three seats, it takes a long time. it doesn't matter how many planes you have in the sky, it really just takes forever if -- if you have a 95% full plane, all of a sudden you're not going anywhere. it's going to take a long time to get all of those people back on the planes. cincinnati seeing snow, indianapolis seeing snow all the way back with rain showers in parts of kentucky. this is the forecast that you were talking about. the snow that is still coming.

eventually into new york city. i believe the heaviest snow, it's going to be boston and all the way into parts of new england and into nova scotia. this is not what i would consider a major storm. plus, it's hitting on a saturday. that's some good news as the storm comes on by. here comes the know through new york city, snow showers in parts of pennsylvania but there is your bull's eye. the heaviest snowfall stays away from new york city this time. >> take it on the weekend, though, chad myers. thank you so much. and now to that 100 car pile-up and the traffic jam that is still going on. it's been going on for hours and hours now. cnn's margaret conley is on the it turnpike right outside of philadelphia. what's the latest, margaret? >> reporter: brianna, it's been a chaotic scene since 8:00. we were heading east on the turnpike from pennsylvania to new jersey and there was a mass

pileup. we learned later that there were 27 separate accidents that contributed to this pileup. it was very difficult for emergency vehicles to get up through the traffic to try to get those people out that were injured. this turnpike has very few exits and onramps. 30 people were injured and five of them seriously. we just came back from the hospital where five patients were taken. we heard that one person was admitted unconscious but he has since regained unconsciousness and we have some sound here from another accident victim. >> i started watching cars pile up ahead of me. came to a complete stop and i looked in the rear-view mirror and there was a big truck behind me and he was trying to stop but he was sliding and he slammed right into the back of me which then made me slam into the car in front of me. >> reporter: now, i just got off

the phone with another hospital victim who was recently discharged. he said what he saw was -- all he saw were brake lights and then he saw a wall of cars. he said his head hit the steering wheel and now the left side of his body is feeling numb. he's a bit shaken up. he says that he's going to be okay. the one thing he had a positive outlook, he did say that everyone around was pitching in and trying to help. he had to climb out of the back of his car because his car door was smashed in so hard he couldn't open it. the trunk of his car was totally smashed in as well so he couldn't move the car but everyone was pitching in. we also heard that a woman was handing out sandwiches to other people stuck in traffic. so that's the positive thing that has come out of this if there is anything we do know that an investigation is on the way right now. they have removed the cars from the scene to a separate location. they are going to track how many cars were involved and what the actual cause of this accident

was through the weekend. brianna? >> so scary, margaret, but good to see a lot of people checking on their neighbors there on the road. margaret conley for us, thank you. and next, president obama gives a pep talk to house democrats but lets joe biden throw out the red meat. the u.s. team wants to get rid of the racing suits that they believe are slowing them down. rachel nichols will have the latest from sochi.

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president obama is taking something of a victory lap i guess you could say at a meeting

with house democrats he praised his party for sticking it out on the debt ceiling fight and touted his administration's new enrollment obamacare numbers. athena jones is at the white house with more on this. what are we hearing, athena? >> reporter: the speech was part pep rally and part recap of the proposals that he spelled out in his state of the union address last month. he celebrated the fact that congress passed this bill to raise the debt ceiling this week and praised democrats for sticking together on that issue and in the midst of the repeated republican attempts. >> i want to thank all of you for hanging in their tough on an issue that i think ten years from now, five years from now we're going to look back and say this was a monumental achievement that could not have happened had it not been for this caucus. >> now, the president pointed to a positive enrollment numbers

this week saying it showed his administration had, quote, vitally exceeded its targets for january. in january, 1.1 million people signed up for health insurance on the state and federal exchanges and that brings the total since october to 3.1 million people. he touched on a couple more topics. he called on democrats to keep fighting to raise the minimum wage and also said they should keep fighting to pass a bill that would overhaul the country's immigration system. he wants to see that done before the midterm elections in november. house speaker john boehner would prefer to tackle that issue after the midterm elections and the president also brought up immigration reform on the radio. he said that he believes it will get done before his presidency is over, immigration reform, but he'd like to get it done today. this year. i'm sorry. brianna? >> this year. and some people might say he has as much of a chance this year as if he were getting it done today, athena. but it's interesting, the president was kind of

cheerleading in trying to make democrats feel better, some of whom are concerned in the midterm election year. it was vice president biden who was really the attack dog today. what did he say? >> that's right. and it's not that unusual to have someone else besides the president, especially vice president biden deliver the red meat. and sew spoke to the same group, these house democrats a couple of hours before the president and he shuck a much more partisan tone. the democrats should keep aggressively pushing their agenda and like no time before, middle class americans have been overwhelmingly supportive of the democrat's policies, ideas. he says it's divisions in the republican party that are blocking progress. let's take a listen. >> there isn't a republican party. i wish there were. i wish there was a republican party. i wish there was one person who could sit across the table from, make a deal, make a compromise and know when you got up from that table it was done.

that's what political parties -- that's what nancy's able to do. that's what the president is able to commit to. but there is -- all had to do was look at the response of the state of the union. i'm not being facetious. >> so there you heard some pretty strong words there from the vice president and it's going to be interesting to see if that's a theme we hear from a lot more from the president and others in the administration, sort of speaking plainly about what they see going on in the republican party. brianna? >> atheen that jones, thank you so much. and coming up, federal judges across the country are overturning state's bands on same-sex marriage. we'll show you how some states are fighting back. and some speed skaters are blaming their poor performances on their uniforms. but under armour is fighting back. there's a saying around here, you stand behind what you say. around here you don't make excuses.

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mexico, kentucky, across the country, same-sex marriage bans are being struck down and

creating a messy patch of marriage laws. joe johns as the details of that case this virginia. >> reporter: the challenge to virginia same-sex marriage ban was brought by two men who were denied a marriage license. >> we are no different than anybody else out here. we just want the opportunity to be recognized the same way everyone else is and to have the same benefits that married couples have now. >> reporter: and two virginia women whose marriage was formalized in california but not being recognized in the commonwealth. >> as parents, we want the best for our daughter and we know that it would mean a lot to her if our family was treated just like every other family. we want that for all virginians no matter who they are and who they love. >> reporter: an appointee obama confronts a question, whether the constitution guarantees equal protection for same-sex

marriage. the declaration of independence declares that all men are created equal. surely this means all of us. in kentucky this week, a federal judge ruled the state must recognize same-sex marriages legally performed in other states but did not address kentucky's obama samwn same-sexe ban. six other states are in flux including pennsylvania, ohio, utah, oklahoma, and virginia. in flux because of recent federal court rulings or politicians who have refused to enforce the restrictions. the newly sworn in governor and attorney general of virginia, both democrats, are among them. >> marriage is a fundamental right protected by the constitution. >> it's an issue most likely to be decided right here at the united states supreme court. virginia is in focus because the case for marriage equality there was argued by two washington super lawyers. they recently challenged and won

a california same-sex marriage case before the supreme court. the opponents say the courts are overstepping their bounds. >> there's not an equal protection right to redefine the very nature of what marriage is. marriage is the union of a man and a woman. >> opponents of same-sex marriage are fighting back, even pushing laws to protect those who object to making wedding cakes for gay couples. state lawmakers in kansas have drafted a bill that would protect people who refuse goods and services to same-sex couples. joe johns, cnn, washington. >> virginia has banned same-sex marriages since 2006 and as joe johns reported, many residents are outraged that a federal judge has overturned what they voted at the ballot box. joining me right now, virginia attorney general and cnn's senior legal analyst, jeffrey toobin. first question to you, attorney general. and i want for you to address

some of the criticism that has come from some folks in virginia when it comes to this ruling. some people are saying, hey, we voted for this, we went, we cast our ballots and now our will is being ignored. what do you say to that criticism? >> well, first of all, the ruling is a victory for equality in virginia. it's a ruling for the constitution and when i decided it a few weeks ago that in presenting the state's legal position i had concluded after a thorough and rigorous review that virginia's ban on marriage for same-sex couples violated the 14th amendment, equal protection and due process clauses and, you know, i took an oath to support both the united states and virginia constitutions. and as we're all taught at a young age, when there's a conflict between the two, the u.s. constitution prevails. it's the supreme law of the land. >> certainly this is seeing that

we're seeing other states do, including more conservative states that you might not expect this to happen there. what is your expectation here? do you think this will go all the way to the supreme court? >> i don't know whether this particular case will be the one that the supreme court decides to take or whether it will be one of the other ones from oklahoma or utah or another state. but certainly it's one that the supreme court is going to need to rule on definitively and we're seeing the landscape change quickly. during the summer last year, a round of cases were filed following that and in a number of states and this is one of them. and it's one that ultimately it's going to have to be decided by the court. >> to that point, i want to bring in jeff toobin. i know that this is something that you've been following, jeff. >> it really is remarkable. the law usually doesn't move very quickly. but since june, when the windsor case was decided, which struck

down the defense of marriage act, three federal judges in three states have declared that same-sex marriage is required, in virginia, utah, and oklahoma and two more states, kentucky and ohio, judges there have said those states which don't have same-sex marriage has to honor marriages that were conducted in states that do have same-sex marriage. that is lightning change. there are 46 cases pending in 25 states. so the legal landscape on this subject is changing very, very quickly. >> and what do you think about that, attorney general, when you look at the fact that no federal judge has ruled in favor? the trend appears to be what we're seeing -- the trend is what we're seeing and what we have just seen in virginia. >> well, it's consistent with the analysis that i made when i first came into office knowing this case was pending, knowing

it was going to be one of the first decisions we made and the landscape is changing but the principles behind it are principles that have existed for a long, long time in this country. the equality of right principle. you know, that's the principle and one of the reasons why i felt it was important to present the commonwealth position as i did is because of virginia's unique history on key landmark civil rights decisions where virginia argued on the wrong side of brown versus board of education on school's desegregation, argued on the wrong side of the loving versus virginia interracial marriage ban, argued on the wrong side of allowing female cadets admission to state -supported virginia military institute. so the principle behind this is the same. it's the quality of right principle. what is changing very rapidly is people's perception as well as the court's perception of how

that equality principle applies to same-sex marriages. >> jeff, you've been following all of these cases. i know you may have a question for the attorney general. >> well, i guess the question is, when do you think the supreme court will get this? obviously i think you're right that the supreme court will take up this issue but no appellate courts yet have addressed it. when do you think? this year, next year, the following year the supreme court will get the case? >> it's difficult to predict. i suspect probably sometime next year. what i think will happen in this case -- and first of all, it's important for people to know that in addition to judge allen wright ruling that virginia's ban on same-sex marriage wass unconstitutional, she granted a stay. it will remain in force pending the appeal. the legal arguments have all been argued orally. they have been presented in written briefs at the district court level. so when it gets up to the fourth

circuit court of appeals, i feel confident and we're going to work towards this to get an agreement to a briefing. i don't think the arguments will change dramatically in the circuit court and so we're going to work to getting expeditious appellate review as possible. >> all right. attorney general of virginia, mark herring, that's for being with us and also to jeff toobin, our senior legal analyst. >> thank you for inviting me. now, next, hillary clinton talks about having a tough skin but documents examined by cnn capture a moment in history when she railed against hypocrites. and did their racing suits drag them down or was it something else, perhaps? we'll have a live report from sochi on the controversy surrounding the u.s. olympic speed skating team. you have time to shop for car insurance today? yeah. i heard about progressive's "name your price" tool? i guess you can tell them how much you want to pay and it gives you a range of options to choose from.

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we are getting new glimpses into hillary clinton's love/hate relationship with the news media as she weighs a 2016 presidential bid. cnn has examined previously unseen documents that shed new light on clinton's response to negative coverage when she was first lady. and just yesterday, clinton spoke publicly about hanging tough under fire. >> one of the best pieces of advice that i've ever heard from anyone is eleanor roosevelt in the 1920s who said that women in politics or in public roles should grow skin like a rhino

krc. >> there's an old saying that your critics can be your best friends if you listen to them and learn from them but don't get dragged down by them. >> her comments come as new documents reveal clinton has held a great distrust of the media from before her time as first lady. clinton calls the press complete hypocrites. they say they want the truth, want power to be transparent but in fact they prefer backstage manipulation, barbara bush, nancy reagan and truman. shortly after her husband's 1992 win, hillary can received this advice about dealing with reporters from first lady barbara bush. >> be hair of this crowd. you don't want to have anything to do with them and if you're

going to be quoted, say it loud and clear that they are not to be trusted and hillary said to barbara bush, i've already had some experience with that. >> in the white house, the clintons squared off in the press over the firing of white house travel employees. investigations into white house counsel vince foster's suicide. the list went on. >> the clinton's felt they were being attacked over health care, over this so-called scandal in whitematt whitewater and in fact they hadn't done anything wrong in whitewater but they certainly handled it badly. and once again, this battle of noncandor was established. >> reporter: especially for hillary clinton, who was more guarded than her husband. in january 1995, after two years in the white house, she told her friend that she did not know how history could be written on bill clinton's presidency with media reports being so long.

diane blair wrote, she said there was hardly a news story that she couldn't totally refute. and our chief political analyst gore yeah borger is joining us now. we sort of looked there at hillary clinton, her days in arkansas, her time in the white house has first lady. do you think that she's done a lot to sort of rebuild her image since then and also separate herself from her husband? >> look, she had an unsuccessful presidential campaign in which she was the prohibited favorite and she lost to barack obama and that was obviously hurtful. i would argue she was a hugely successful senator and a very successful secretary of state even after all of the bauz zeng controversy. people see her as a successful secretary of state. if she runs, she's going to run on her experience of a lifetime, which is what she talked about in her last presidential bid. but people will look at her differently because she has

truly sort of separated her achievements from those of bill clinton who, by the way, is also going to be very hurtful because he's a lot more popular than he ever was. right? >> certainly. and in the time of the state department was sort of her reset for the poor management of her campaign. >> and also, one other thing about hillary clinton, when she first became secretary of state, people were saying, oh, how could barack obama appoint her? she would never be a member of the team of rivals and it turned out that she was a team player and we'll see what she writes about her in memoir that is coming out this summer but she was a team player and people who love barack obama and didn't like hillary clinton, they are now going to work for hillary clinton because they respected the way she behaved when she was on her former opponent's team and that's not a small thing. >> no. and she was so influential. and so now, as everyone is wondering, is she going to run, is she not going to run? i mean, is she sort of damned if

she does and damned if she doesn't when she speaks publicly? >> she dominates the headlines. you were talking about her friend, mrs. blair's diaries which, of course, hillary clinton didn't write but these are private conversations that were dredged up from decades ago and she is still in the headlines and we're still talking about how she feels about the press. in many ways, a lot of us grew up looking at hillary. we feel like we know her because we watched her in the white house or we watched her as a senator, we watched her run for the presidency. we watched her as secretary of state. so everybody comes to her with a certain bias that they already have because they think they know her. i think her challenge is difficult. it's to reintroduce herself as who she is really comfortable being. i think you saw that when she was secretary of state and i think she's got to sort of

figure out a way to do that and to say, look, i am a candidate who understands the way this country needs to move and change. >> yeah. to capitalize on her experience without seeming like, you know, kind of -- >> she's ten generations ago. >> to that point, one of the stories that was written when president obama was elected was you had john mccain who was of a different generation. >> right. >> and voters were ready for someone of a new generation. hillary clinton is a baby boomer. if she does run, she'll be running against younger folks. we're looking at marco rubio, paul ryan. these guys are of a different generation. will that work against her, do you think? >> you know what, she's a woman and sometimes it takes women a lot longer to get to the place that men get to a little bit earlier in life. and so i think -- i don't think it would be held against her and also there's a question about republicans saying barack obama did not have enough experience,

being president of the united states, his tenure as president has proven that. it's been hard for them to turn around and say, by the way, marco rubio or ted cruz, who are newbies in the senate, just like barack obama was, should then get the nomination because then they can't make that argument anymore and it's a little difficult for them. so i think the fact that it's taken hillary clinton longer to get to where she is as a woman -- >> right. we have longevity, right? this is one of the advantages of being a woman. >> right. and we change with the times. >> all right. gloria borger, thanks so much. we have pictures right now of president obama's plane, air force one, landing in fresno, if we can pull that up. he is going to be out west talking about the terrible drought conditions in the air plaguing area farmers. a lot of people conserving water. it's something that we are going

to be following and you see air force one landing there in fresno, california, in the central valley. and we are also awaiting a verdict in a closely watched case being called the loud music trial. this has a florida man facing a murder charge. the jury continuing to deliberate. the case has attracted national attention since the beginning. there are parallels here to the killing of trayvon martin and that trial of george zimmerman. similar overtones here of race and self-defense. in this case, michael dunn claimed that he was acting in self-defense when he fired on an suv with four teenagers inside after confronting them about the loud music they were playing. well, dunn said he saw one of the teens grabbing a gun. so dunn fired ten shots. three of them hit 17-year-old jordan davis who died. no gun was ever found in the teen's car. no gun. dunn was charged with first-degree murder and three counts of attempted murder. and just ahead, we've got

the latest from sochi where there's a battle brewing over the u.s. speed skater's uniforms. and vladimir putin paid a surprise visit to team usa. this is really interesting. you want to stick around for this. find out what -- why the russian president was at the usa house. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ told ya you could do it. (dad vo) i want her to be safe. so, i taught her what i could and got her a subaru. (girl) piece of cake. ♪ (announcer) love. it's what makes a subaru, a subaru. 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.

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you are looking at live pictures of air force one in fresno. president obama descending. he is there talking about the drought. he'll be announcing federal aid.

in addition, he'll be meeting in a sort of rare west coast visit with jordan's king abdullah and then he'll be spending the weekend -- we don't know, probably golfing. not a whole lot on his schedule. you see him there greeting local dignitaries as he begins these few days on the west coast. and also, the u.s. speed skating team has yet to even medal at the winter olympics in sochi. and frustrated team members are beginning to blame their suits. their outfits, their uniforms for disappointing performances. but under armour is defending themselves. joining me now, rachel nichols, the host of "unguarded" here on cnn. she's live in sochi, russia, where she's been covering the games. and this speed skating story is something i've been following all day. the speed skating now responding to the uniform controversy saying, we're working with our athletes, coaches, trainers and

equipment partners to figure out what we can do to produce better results for team usa through the completion of the winter olympic games. so it kind of makes you think that a change will be >> the executive director has confirmed a couple of reports saying that they have applied to the ioc to have the option to change back to their old suits. that doesn't mean that they're going to. the team has to vote on it and apparently different skaters have different opinions about just how much of a difference these suits have made both in the pro and the con column. the vents toward the back to allow heat to escape and should make you faster. some feel it creates some drag. when you have a competition that's decided in hundredths of a second even a little bit of drag can make a difference. the u.s. speedskating association doesn't want to upset one of its sponsors.

remember, this isn't the nfl. they don't sell a bunch of tirkts for these guys. they really depend on their sponsors to get their athletes to the games. they've come out and said all the right things about underarm our, if they do switch back to the old suits, those will be underarmour suits as well. the bottom line is are these vents really making a difference or are these in the athletes' heads or does it really matter? when you don't have confidence in your suit when you start your race, you may have lost it before you've even gone around. it's one of the things that they've got to figure out what is most important. they're not getting the results they expected here. there are two world number ones in the thousand meters finished eighth and seventh place respectively. >> so far behind the leader. much farther behind the leader than they would have expected to. it's always interesting to see how foreign policy collides with sport when you're looking at the olympic, rachel. one of the headlines today is that russian president vladimir

putin actually met with team usa. what can you tell us about this fascinating visit? >> this is a lot of fun. team usa has a little house. they call it usa house on the olympic park grounds. it's just a place for american athletes to come, relax, hang out wo their families, meet up with friends, that sort of thing. on thursday usa house got a message from the russians that vladimir putin wanted to come visit. so what do you say when vladimir putin wants to come visit, you say yes, especially if you're in russia. not only did the security team descend on them, he apparently has some sort of official taster because someone came in from his security team and tasted the red and white wine and beer and water that was going to be offered to him. i guess the red wine is what passed muster because that's what he had today when he came to visit. he was, much to the amusement of much of the athletes, met with the president of the usoc and was asking people if they were having a good time.

he seemed very concerned that everyone's acome o dapgss was up to snuff. when one woman shouted as he was walking by, wow, these olympics are beautiful, he ran back to shake her hand, he was so happy. we have a little insight to what's been important to him. >> this is a big deal for vladimir putin, and he wants to make sure it goes off without a hitch. rachel nichols, thanks so much for joining us from sochi. >> thanks. >> now, a quick look at the medal count. the u.s. is currently tied for first place with norway, 13 medals apiece, followed closely behind by the netherlands and russia who are tied with 12 each, pretty close there. now coming up, the justice department has given banks the green light to deal in pot. we'll explain that. and a mysterious fireball burning across the sky. what's behind this crazy video. so ally bank has a raise your rate cd that won't trap me in a rate. that's correct.

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the defense department has released the names of two u.s. soldiers killed in afghanistan. specialist john pelham of po portland, oregon and roberto skelt. they were shot by two men wearing afghan military uniforms. these so-called insider attacks have killed dozens of u.s. and nato soldiers over the last 13 year years. banks are allowed to provide state licenses to marijuana businesses. the justice department says banks may not be prosecuted for dealing with pot dispenser, so long as the dispenser doesn't violate federal law like selling to children or in states where pot is not legal. recreational marijuana is legal in colorado and washington state, but the federal government classifies pot as among the most dangerous substances. alexander hamilton is being hailed as, quote, undeniably one of our greatest presidents by the start-up groupon.

unfortunately for groupon founder hamilton never held a higher office than secretary of the treasury. no word on whether the whole thing is just a joke. venture capitalist tom perkins said that americans who pay more in taxes should get more votes. he later said, quote, i intended to be outrageous. perkins stirred up controversy last month when he published a letter in "the wall street journal" saying the rich were under an assault similar to the nazi attacks on jews. perki perkins' net worth is reportedly $8 million. take a look at this. a man in maine shot this 2 1/2-minute video of a mysterious fireball streaking across the sky. his video's gained thousands of views as the internet tried to determine just what this thing was. the answer finally came from an astronomer at the university of southern maine. it is space junk. that's right a piece of a

satellite breaking off and falling to earth. happening now, new subpoenas. the probe into chris christie's bridge scandal is growing wider and we're learning new details about the people lawmakers are demanding testify. was there a cover story? deadly stockpile. a disturbing update on the chemical weapons syria was supposed to give up. how many is the regime still holding on to? and airport hell. desperate passengers getting nowhere fast as airlines scramble to make up for thousands of canceled flights. will more bad weather make matters even worse. wolf blitzer is off today. i'm brianna keilar and you're in "the situation room." well, this is an investigation that could derail a white house run and reshape the political landscape. and now we're learning new information about a slew of subpoenas as new jersey lawmakers probe governor chris christie's bridge scandal. they are looking at allegations

that top christie appointees orchestrated traffic jams on the george washington bridge last year in ft. lee to punish the town's mayor for not endorsing christie's re-election. chr chris frates has been digging into this for us. >> lawmakers have issued 18 new subpoenas wideping their investigation. as we pored through dozens of these pages it appears they have questions about a testimony of a top christie official. even as chris christie raised money for the gop and fought the record snowfall in his state, tweeting about snowmen and school closings, he's not been able to fend off an avalanche of new subpoenas in the widening probe of the bridgegte scandal. >> does the gw bridge situation impact your ability to execute on those priorities for the state? >> actually, i'm shocked you brought that up. >> cnn has obtained copies of 18 subpoenas issued by the legislative committee

investigating the scandal, documents which appear to widen the scope of the probe. lawmakers are trying to uncover whether christie's top appointee at the port authority, bill baroni lied when he said that the lanes were closed for a traffic study. any drafts or earlier versions of the statement read by william e.baroni during his testimony. it seeks testimony from baroni and port authority letters. >> the documents provided to the committee have long shown that was just a cover story trying to hide the lane closure. what's important to the committee is to know why such a great amount of time was used to come up with that story. >> reporter: democrats have also asked for material unrelated to the lane closures including toll increases and a controversial tunnel project. some republicans on the committee say the investigation is spinning out of control. >> that's why i called it a charade. how can you call a process

bipartisan when information appears to be doled out based on party affiliations? and when the debate is taking place in the media? >> reporter: documents related to the investigation have already started coming in, but some key players are still refusing to cooperate with the subpoenas, setting up what may become a constitutional showdown. now, brianna, there's also been questions about how the closures affected traffic safety. cnn reviewed government records and found there were 61 car accidents on or near the george washington bridge the week of those now infamous lane closures. the number of accidents interest average, but we spoke with multiple people involved in wrecks who all say the traffic nightmare was directly to blame. there's still plenty of people angry out there. >> chris frates, thank you so much for that. let's get more with cnn political comment rater and new yorker washington correspondent ryan lizza as well as alec

mcguinness of the new republic. what do you make of the subpoena details? >> the most interesting thing is they're expanding this investigation into this a.r.c. tunnel project. and they're looking for a pattern here, right? so the traffic study was the cover story for the traffic jam in ft. lee, right? so now they're saying, wait a second, chris christie you killed this a.r.c. project and you said the reason was because of a cost overrun. we now want to know what the justification for that cost overrun was. a complicated, a little bit of an inside baseball new jersey thing, but they're looking for a pattern -- >> yes. >> -- of the christie administration making decisions and then using cover stories. >> there's a template for other instances of this happening? >> exactly. that's what struck me in the new subpoenas. >> alec, you have a fascinating article in "the new republic" entitled "chris christie's entire career wreaks."

you said when christie got cozy with democratic bosses people only saw a man willing to work across the aisle. when he bullied his opponents, he only saw a truth-teller. it was one of the most effective optical illusions in american politics -- until it wasn't. you lay out this case of chris christie sort of being, i guess transactional in a way that if people are familiar with new jersey politics, there's a reputation for that. you lay out case after case where he's kind of almost building an empire to sort of bolster himself. right. >> how was he so effective doing this, and to your point where you say people just missed that he was doing it. why do you think so? >> they missed it and he was so effective at it because all along he was running against it. he was setting himself up against new jersey as this kind of corrupt place. as a prosecutor, which was the job that made him, this is how he set himself up. all along, though, he was kind of using that same machine,

using some of the same power brokers to advance himself. it was brilliant. it was really kind of machiavellian. we were looking at him on one side of the coin and in fact he was working the other side of the coin at the same time. >> it's a pretty fascinating read. i know that you've read it, ryan. >> yes, absolutely. >> but if you go through this and you wonder sometimes, okay, maybe that k50i7ind of doesn't the sniff test but maybe that is just new jersey politics? >> that is the great question is how much of christie's rise and the sort of deals he made have to do with chris christie as just who he is, as this machiavellian character, as the way you portray him in the piece, and how much of it is just structural and the way if you want to do business in jersey, if you want to get from point a, chris christie, the presence of his class in college and wants to be governor, the only way to be governor in new jersey is you have to make a lot of deals on the way up that are

inevitably are your undoing once you get there. i remember in the corzine era there was an anonymous democratic aide, this always stuck with me, who said, being new jersey governor is a sucker's bet because whatever you did to get there will destroy you in the end. is it jersey or it is christie? >> it's definitely both. i think that the -- i think we'd be less likely to raise questions about it now if he hadn't been so righteous in declaring himself above that all. that's really how he got to where he was was declaring himself as the reformer to take this on and clean it all up. in fact what we now know is that he was sort of selectively clearing it up, clear kg out a lot of the smaller fry corrupt officials while leaving in place some really big power brokers who were very, very useful to him. >> and who, as you describe in multiple cases, may have been pretty questionable when he was u.s. attorney of new jersey. this is part of your article, that he wasn't going after

certain people that maybe some thought that he should. >> exactly. there are a couple very prime examples, the biggest one is this fellow george norcross who is a hugely powerful, influential power broker in south jersey, has been there for a long time. and chris christie in 2006 had a chance to press a case against him, declared that he was not going to, but not only did that, put out a six-page letter explaining that the reason he was not going after george norcross is that the state prosecutors who had started the case had bungled the case. he even suggested that they were shielding him, which is a really machiavellian move where he protected himself against any notion that he was protecting george norcross by accusing others of doing the same. george norcross has become probably the key person in christie's world in new jersey. >> before we go, i want to put up a photo that is depicting governor christie as tony soprano. it's equating him really to a

killer mobster. is that really a fair assessment? i mean, ryan, when you look at this. >> you know, alec's editor is a good friend of mine who chose that picture and actually called him before i came over here and said i'm going to throw you under the bus on cnn right now. >> yeah. >> you know, i would -- if i were frank ford, the editor of the magazine, i don't think i would have gone with this, to be totally honest. i think it detracts from alec's piece which was excellent. and look, chris christie is an italian american who is a little overweight from north jersey. it is inevitable that he's going to be compared to tony soprano, right? that's just a given. but you know, as you pointed out, this is a mobster and a killer. in your piece, it was a tough piece, i don't think you accused him of killing. >> your piece was very detailed, very well researched. and i'm sorry to put you on the spot, but i kind of wanted to there. what do you think about the

picture? >> i see where ryan's coming from. it's a fair question to ask. i would defend it on these terms. first of all, the piece itself, as ryan noted, does not traffic in any kind of insinuation as chris christie as somehow mobster, organized crime, any kind of even ethnic characterization, he is half italian, half sicilian. i think what's possibly justified because it evokes not the mob, it evokes new jersey. tony soprano is about as iconic a jersey cultural figure as it gets along with maybe springsteen. >> bon jovi. >> but also really for me, it evokes the sort of pathos of the current moment for chris christie, the fact that you had this guy who a couple months ago was the front-runner riding high off this election, now weeks later he's in this really tough spot. that image of him coming down the driveway from the big max o

mansion to get the paper in a bathrobe. >> you should have ended the piece with a black line. >> with the plain, some "don't stop believing" lyrics or something like that. thanks to both of you for being with us today. still ahead, tons of chemical weapons still in syria's hands. how is the regime flouting the deal that helped it avert a u.s. strike? and eye-popping new video of a giant sinkhole that swallowed eight air corvettes. we'll be showing you how they got these amazing images. but first, this "impact your world." >> the country of congo has been plagued by decades of war and violence. for former nba star dekem bee mutombo, that violence hit home in a very personal way. >> there was some shooting in the area. and my dad was trying to get my mom to the hospital and they were told that they cannot get

on the road, that they had to go back inside. >> about an hour later, mutombo's mother passed away in her living room. mutombo says too many africans have died because they were denied or didn't have access to medical care. something he wants to change. with funds raised through his dikembe mutombo association, he built a hospital in the congo capital city. the hospital bears his mother's name, the person he says taught him the importance of helping others. >> for everything she did for her children and her family, the value of love and giving back and sharing. >> mutombo's hospital has treated more than 30,000 patients, including these premature triplets, who would have died without his help. >> the babies are 3 years old now. every time i come, they run up to me and they hug me. that's the impact that we are making. honestly? my kids were always on my laptop.

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process is stumbling. these last 24 hours have been particularly devastating for the peace process. it had been difficult for days to even get the syrian opposition and syrian government at the same table, now one of the key backers of the talks, russia, long a supporter of bashar al assad is refusing to accept one of the key bases of these negotiations. at the same time the violence and the suffering in the words of secretary of state john kerry, have become grotesque. this is the sound of a country in chaos. tens of thousands of syrians desperately trying to escape the besieged city of homs. epicenter of their country's two-year-long civil war. many now starving, forced to eat grass to survive. and these are u.s.-led syria peace talks near collapse following russia's stunning refusal for now to even discuss

a political transition. a key foundation of the negotiations. today secretary of state john kerry said president obama has asked his advisers to present new policy options. >> it's gotten worse, dramatically worse. the situation demands that the civilized world stand up and fight for those people who are the victims day-to-day of violence. this is grotesque. >> reporter: grotesque. there is a growing chorus who place the blame firmly on u.s. policy in syria. >> syria, today. >> reporter: senator john mccain recently called out the president for failing to stem the bloodshed. >> where is president obama who has said he refuses to accept that brutal tyrants can slaughter their people with impunity while the most powerful nation in the history of the world looks on and stands by? >> reporter: as peace talks stumble, so has the landmark agreement to remove syria's chemical weapons.

it is now alarmingly behind schedule. all of syria's chemical weapons were supposed to be out of the country a week ago. cnn has learned that, as of now, syria has removed only 11%. -- notes that 5,000 syrians have died since the peace talks began. and state department officials accuse the syrian government of stepping up aerial bombing and using starvation as a weapon. the only solution to this is political but that's really an impossible task without russia's cooperation. you really wonder what leverage the u.s. has with the russians to get them back to the table with the syrians, to follow the terms of this chemical weapons deal. you know, they say that the military option is still on the table. it really isn't as a practical matter at this point. you wonder whether that leverage is, it's a big question. >> what are the prospects for getting the chemical weapons out, if they're that far behind? are they still getting some out

and thins are headed in the right direction or is it looking bad? >> it's in the right direction and it's more today than it was a month ago, but it's well behind schedule. supposed to have 100% out of the country by february 5th. we now have 11% out. to have it all out and destroyed by june. >> probably not going to happen. jim sciutto, thank you very much. we're learning new details about how former nsa contractor edward snowden accessed some of the most highly classified government secrets that he famously leaked to the world according to an nsa memo, it involves snowden tricking a co-worker. barbara starr is working the story for us. what happened, barbara? >> brianna, this is really fascinating. there is now a memo from the nsa to congress looking at the damage and how it might have happened. how did snowden carry this thing off? well, it looks like he did trick a co-worker, another civilian employee at the nsa, into giving

him his password. this memo details this and says, i want to quote part of it. it says that the employee was tricked into putting this password into snowden's computer and then, quote, mr. snowden was able to capture the password, allowing him even greater access to classified information. the memo says the civilian employee had no idea what snowden was going to do, but nonetheless, it is a serious violation of nsa security protocols to give up this kind of passboard information. the employee has left the nsa. the nsa says it's informed the justice department about all of this. no word if the justice department is going to proceed against this person, and maybe most tantalizing, the memo says there is also an active duty military member and a contractor involved in all of this, but they don't say exactly what's going to happen next to those two people. but remember, snowden said he

didn't trick anybody into it. it looks like maybe he did. >> well, let me ask you this, barbara. when he said he captured the password. does that mean that it wasn't just a matter of one time this co-worker putting the password into perhaps snowden's computer, but he was a actually able to capture the password and have it for future use. >> yeah, it looks -- we don't have a lot of detail other than what this memo specifically says from the nsa to congress, but that is clearly the implication of what happened here. the employee enters the password, doesn't realize what snowden is going to do with it. snowden captures it. that's the operative word here. and the belief is that he probably then used it to get additional classified information. >> fascinating. barbara starr, thank you so much. now it was one year ago today when olympic star oscar pistorius shot and killed his girlfriend reeva steenkamp. new photos given to cnn show the couple seemingly happy and in

love not long before his death. pistorius broke his silence today calling reeva's death, quote, a devastating accident. the blade runner, known for his prosthetic legs, will stand trial early next month for murder. he denies the charge. check out this amazing new video. you are climbing inside the massive sinkhole that swallowed eight classic corvettes. these cars were featured at the center of the national corvette museum in bowling green, kentucky, when this sink hole formed and caused substantial damage to the cars, as you can imagine. the museum has actually reopened but experts say it will take up to six days to pull the cars out. george zimmerman is breaking his silence next week, finally providing answers to the many questions surrounding the night he killed trayvon martin and the lengthy trial that followed. he'll be speaking to cnn's own chris cuomo in an interview, tuesday morning from 6:00 to 9:00 eastern. pope francis has a very

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happening now, extreme winter. the dangerous conditions affecting millions of americans with another blast of snow on the horizon. what you need to know to weather the storm of the decade and also historic gridlock in america's airports. "crossfire" is off tonight so we can bring you the very latest on the weather and travel across the u.s. i'm brianna keilar, and you're in "the situation room." tonight, millions of americans are struggling to dig out and move on from one of the biggest snow and ice disasters in memory, but another storm is moving toward the east coast right now, and it's threatening to add to that danger and all the gridlock in the hardest-hit areas. a blizzard watch now has been