Pressure on Russia to End Air Campaign in Syria; Front-Line Look at Syrian War; Israeli Prime Minister Headed to Prison
GEORGE HOWELL, CNN ANCHOR: From CNN world headquarters in Atlanta, welcome to our viewers here in the United States and all around the world. I'm George Howell. CNN NEWSROOM starts right now. A very good day to you. We begin this hour with the race for the White House and the political storm that is brewing in the United States. With less than a week before voters cast ballots in the states of South Carolina and Nevada, presidential candidates from both parties are very busy on the campaign trail trying to sway voters in contentious races. And now the death of a Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, it has raised the stakes, with both parties keenly aware that filling this vacancy could tip the balance of the court. Democrats are vying for support from African-American voters. Republicans continue courting evangelicals. Now the big question that is looming over the campaigns: Who will President Obama nominate for the court? And what will Republicans do about it? That is especially true in the state of South Carolina where Republicans have just come from a very contentious debate there. Phil Mattingly reports from the primary battleground.</s>PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Marco Rubio, one of the only candidates on the trail here on Sunday, just a little bit after that rousing debate that was equal parts brawl and exchange of ideas. Rubio's team thinking he did very well in that debate. That's no small thing in the wake of New Hampshire where a disappointing fifth- place finish was due in part to a very poor debate performance. The issue on the campaign trail on Sunday, no different than the leading issue in that debate, who will be the next Supreme Court justice and who will get the pick? Here's what Rubio said in South Carolina.</s>SEN. MARCO RUBIO, (R), FLORIDA & PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: There is no way the Senate should confirm anyone that Barack Obama tries to appoint in his last year in office to a lifetime appointment.</s>RUBIO: So the next president of the United States will fill that vacancy.</s>MATTINGLY: Rubio sounding just like the rest of the Republican Senators in his conference, saying President Obama will get no chance to move his nominee, whoever that may be, through the United States Senate. Now Rubio has a very important week of campaigning ahead. The South Carolina based campaign team, a lot of pros according to South Carolina analysts down here. Still a lot of ground to make up. Donald Trump with double-digit leads not only in South Carolina but across the country. Rubio hoping to cut into the lead this week. A strong performance in South Carolina his team hopes will bolster his campaign forward as this campaign moves along. Rubio trying to get back the momentum he had in the wake of the big Iowa finish.</s>HOWELL: That was Phil Mattingly reporting for us. As for the Democrats, even though the president says he will nominate a replacement for Antonin Scalia, the issue will still play a very heavy role in Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton's campaign strategy moving forward. CNN's senior political analyst, David Gergen, reports.</s>DAVID GERGEN, CNN SENOR POLITICAL ANALYST: It's the responsibility of both branches of government to move quickly to fill a vacancy in the Supreme Court. That's what's been done in the past. It should be done again. There is no reason for delay. He is going to find the best qualified person to do it and he is going to put it up there and he's going to fight for that person and he's going to try to win. And he ought to go for the victory. If he doesn't get the victory, though, he wants the issue in the campaign. In other words, you either get the victory or you get the issue, one or the other. That has to be the president's strategy so he can use it to add -- let's say, Hillary Clinton has an enthusiasm gap and she is the nominee of the Democratic Party. What the president wants is something that will draw a lot of people out to the polls because they think it's important to vote for the Democrats in order to make sure the Supreme Court doesn't remain and become more heavily conservative. That could be an issue that brings out voters, especially when you're trying to close an enthusiasm gap.</s>HOWELL: That analysis from CNN's senior political analyst, David Gergen. It's still not clear who the president with nominate to take over Scalia's vacant seat but Republicans have made no secret about their strategy, a strategy to delay or possibly block the nomination. We get more from CNN's Manu Raju on the Republican game plan.</s>MANU RAJU, CNN POLITICAL REPORTER: President Obama said he would wait until next week potentially or maybe after to choose the replacement to Justice Scalia. But that doesn't mean the battle lines aren't already being drawn, particularly in the United States Senate. On Saturday night, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who sets the schedule, decides which nominees will be voted on and who will be confirmed, decided the next president should nominate the replacement, not the current president. Clearly, the current president, President Obama, did not listen to Senator McConnell and is planning to move forward. Now the big question for Mitch McConnell and the rest of the Republicans is will they allow a vote on the floor of the Senate and the Senate Judiciary Committee to confirm or deny the next Supreme Court justice. This is something they have not fully decided yet, largely because Senator McConnell wants to take the temperature of his conference. You have various camps forming. You have Republicans who are dead set against any nominee being confirmed right now. Then you have moderates who are uncertain about what to do. Then you have probably the most influential group, members of the Senate Republican conference who are up for election in blue states and purple states. At the end of the day, those members, how they do, will determine whether the Republicans will stay in the majority next year. Those Republicans will be targeted aggressively by the Democrats, by the White House, by groups on both sides to vote the way that they want them to. We'll watch Senators from Ohio, Wisconsin, Illinois, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, and so forth. Those are the key to going forward. Right now, if you are the White House and you are the Democrats, you know you have a very uphill battle to climb to get your nominee confirmed.</s>HOWELL: CNN's Manu Raju reporting for us. Much more ahead here on NEWSROOM on how the fight over the Supreme Court is reshaping the race for the White House. CNN political analyst, Ron Brownstein, will join us in the next hour of CNN NEWSROOM. International diplomats are pressuring Russia to end its air campaign inside Syria but there is no indication that that pressure is achieving results. While delegates debate the terms of a ceasefire agreement, new video on social media purported to show more bombs falling on Sunday. You see it here. At the security conference in Munich, U.S. Senator John McCain accused Russia of using Syria as a live-fire exercise for its military. The Kremlin revealed that Presidents Vladimir Putin and Barack Obama held a, quote, "frank and constructive phone conversation" on Sunday. Each side underscored their very different points of view about the Syrian conflict. CNN international diplomatic editor, Nic Robertson, reports many delegates in Munich feel that Moscow is in the driver's seat.</s>NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: That phone call between President Obama and President Putin seems to highlight sot some of the concerns expressed here in Munich. The Kremlin focusing on one aspect of the call, the White House focusing on another aspect. The Kremlin saying it's important for the United States and Russia to work together to fight terrorists. Of course, it's the definition of terrorists that has been at issue here. The Kremlin seems to consider anyone that's against President Bashar al Assad, considers them a terrorist. The White House, for its part, takes a different view. It's ISIS and al Qaeda that are the terrorists inside Syria. The White House, for its part, emphasized in the phone call that Russia should stop bombing the moderate opposition. We've certainly heard from the moderate opposition here saying they are monitoring the situation very carefully, though they are prepared -- and, of course, this is all about getting those peace talks up and running again -- they are prepared to get back into those peace talks if they see that Russia stops the bombing. But the leader of their delegation here, a former prime minister of Syria, spoke to what he saw is actually happening on the ground, Russia creating facts on the ground. This is what he told the conference in Munich.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE:  (through translation): Since its intervention in January of this year, I ask you that we have 58 clear massacres committed by the Russian military against Syrian civilians alone. In the last 10 days, the Russian air force and its army have intensified and maximized their attempts to punish the Syrian people for their position in demanding their rights. Even before I came here today, I have news that they are seeking to extend Assad's rule south to the Jordanian border.</s>ROBERTSON: So President Obama and President Putin's phone call is really to try to move towards this cessation of hostilities that was agreed a couple of days ago. It's now less than five days away to when this is supposed to be happening. The United States and Russia are supposed to be leading a taskforce to create the modalities to make this happen. But I have to say listening to the delegates here at the security conference in Munich, there is concern here. They don't see the United States has leverage over Russia at the time. They see Russia creating facts on the ground, Russia in a position where it can push its offensive mode not only in Aleppo but also in the south of Syria. And really, the delegates here at the conference consider that really the peace can only come when Russia has done essentially what it wants to do on the ground in Syria. Then maybe says it's time for peace. The United States at the moment still a big hope -- that's the words at the conference here -- a big hope that peace talks can get up and running. But a lot of people concerned and doubting that actually can happen. Nic Robertson, CNN, Munich, Germany.</s>HOWELL: You have doubts about the fact that the Russian air strikes have shifted the momentum in favor of the Syrian regime, the army says Russian support has helped to push back ISIS militants. We take you to the regime's front line against ISIS in Syria. CNN's Fred Pleitgen was given exclusive access.</s>FRED PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In the eastern Syrian Desert, on the fringe of ISIS' self declared caliphate, the Syrian army readied its artillery cannons, tanks, and armored personnel carriers have dug in. (on camera): We are on the front line in the Syrian military's battle against ISIS. The soldiers tell us that ISIS positions are literally only a few miles away from this position. (voice-over): The top commander for this area tells CNN his forces constantly clash with ISIS here. He didn't want to appear on camera because of Syrian military rules, and instead designated a civilian working with him to speak on his behalf. "Over there is the village of Gerbaht," he says. It's considered to be the alternative capital of ISIS.</s>PLEITGEN: The Syrian military recently launched a major offensive in the north of the country, winning back some territory, but also causing tens of thousands to flee towards the Turkish border.</s>PLEITGEN: The U.S. says Syrian forces, mostly combat moderate rebels, have put very little effort into fighting ISIS. But the troops here say that is not true. "For three months now, ISIS has not been advancing," he says, "they have only been retreating."</s>PLEITGEN: And Assad's army acknowledges that Russian air power has had a big impact. "Everything is much better since our Russian friends came in," he says. "They gave us the capability to conduct preemptive strikes and also aerial surveillance to warn us in advance about ISIS attacks." And they vow to continue their push eastward, deeper into ISIS heartland. (on camera): The commanders here say they are on the move forward. And one of their predictions is that if nothing else goes wrong, they think they can be in Raqqa by the end of the year. (voice-over): But they are still far away from achieving that goal, and in the past, ISIS has shown it can rebound after being pushed back. Fred Pleitgen, CNN, eastern Syria.</s>HOWELL: Moving now to Israel where the former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is headed to prison this day to serve an 18-month prison sentence. He was convicted on bribery charges in 2014. Olmert, who led Israel from 2006 to 2009, will be the first former Israel prime minister to go to jail. We go live to Jerusalem this hour. CNN's Oren Lieberman is covering those developments for us. Oren, good to have you. So this is the man who held high office in Israel, who knows government secrets. Will he be mixed in with the rest of the prison population? Are their special plans for him?</s>OREN LIEBERMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Because of him holding the high office, in fact, the highest office, he will be kept separate in what's known as Ward 10, a recently renovated section of the prison, which is actually fairly close to Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion Airport. We just saw that he left his home outside of Jerusalem. It's a about a 45 minute drive to that prison. He has to report by 10:00 this morning, according to the Israel Prison Authority, so he should be there just a few minutes before this deadline. As for Ward 10, it is a small ward. It has room for 18 prisoners. But with Olmert it will only hold four prisoners and that's because they need to be separated from the general population. Olmert, as a former Israeli prime minister, has state secrets, so the prison service won't allow him to be mixed in with people who come from backgrounds of organized crime or other criminals. That's why he will be kept separate. Other than that, the Israel Prison Authority says he will be treated like any other prisoner, given the same allowances, the some allotments of items he is allowed to bring from home. He will have a TV and a desk in his cell. Other than that, he will be treated like any other prisoner. But because of his states a former Israel prime minister, the first Israeli prime minister to be in prison, he is separated from the rest of the prison population for his prison sentence -- George?</s>HOWELL: And, Oren, as we see there, 9:15 your time. And Olmert is set to turn himself in before 10:00 a.m. local time there. He was originally sentenced to six years for bribery charges but this was reduced to 18 months. Can you explain to our viewers how he ended up in this situation?</s>LIEBERMAN: Absolutely. And this all goes back to what's known as the Holyland Affair. This has been more than a decade in the making and in playing out. It goes back to the mid '90s when Ehud Olmert was the mayor of Jerusalem, a position he held for years. There was a real estate developer working on the Holyland development that got a false assessment on the value of the land he was building on to give him tax benefits. That all led to an investigation. And years later, Olmert was finally charged along with a number of others for taking bribes essentially for corruption. The legal process drew out and just recently wrapped up in December, going all the way up in the Israeli legal system. That's when his sentence was knocked down from six years to 18 months. Olmert released a video this morning before leaving for prison saying he insists he is innocent, insists he did nothing wrong, saying he made mistakes but those mistakes were not criminal, and he has paid a heavy price for those mistakes. He suggests, perhaps, too heavy. He does insist he made no mistakes or didn't do anything wrong during his time as the prime minister. This goes back to his time as a mayor of Jerusalem. Now he could serve even more time in prison and that's because of what's known as the Talansky Affair, where he took envelopes full of cash as a bribe. That is still dragging out in the legal system. That could lead to another eight months prison. So, George, before all is said and done, the former prime minister may spend more than two years behind bars.</s>HOWELL: His legal problems far from over. Oren, as you point out, due to turn him in by 10:00 a.m. your time there. We'll stay in touch with you. Oren Lieberman live from Jerusalem. Oren, thank you for reporting. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM. Still ahead, Pope Francis, he is in Mexico bringing his message of hope to the nation during his trip there this week. He is also planning to visit one of the poorest regions of the country in the coming hours, even getting some personal encouragement along the way. We'll explain that. Plus, bitter cold weather, it is gripping parts of the United States. We'll check the effects of what it's doing to temperatures, how low they could drop. You are watching CNN NEWSROOM.