0 won four world series titles with the yankees. along the way, he flew 120 air combat missions in world war ii and korea. the only major leaguer ever to see combat in two wars. baseball star hall of fame broadcaster american war hero. jake taper starts right now. . polar vortex, sounds like a device on go tham city. the national league has not been this cold in decades in many parts of the country. how cold? temperatures in half the u.s. could drop below zero. is there any relief in sight? and politics lead. she's made no official decision about 2016 yet. no official decision. given the level of planning and organization, isn't it a shadow campaign under way? and also in national news, we'll go to vegas, baby for the start of the consumer electronics show where what's cutting edge today will be in your living room or garage tomorrow. good afternoon, everyone. i'm jake tapper. it's cold out there. and not just here. it's january, but it's historically cold. the cold people will look back upon and say it was freezing. now the reason? the polar vortex. about half the country could see temperatures below freezing within the next 48 hours. coldest in 20 years in many places. so what exactly is a polar vortex? it's been described as an arctic hurricane or cyclone, a swirling mass of frigid air. better yet stay inside. right now the polar vortex is moving south and dropping temperatures to dangerous levels pr maine all the way through alabama. high temperatures in parts of the midwest won't even get up to zero today. minneapolis has issued a particularly dangerous situation warning which is usually only used for events such as tornadoes. in chicago, the temperature was at one point colder than it is in the south pole. all of us has you checking flights to key west which has temperatures in the 80s today. beware. cold air is crippling air travel with 3,600 flights cancelled so far just today. cnn has correspondents all over the country. stephanie is tanding by live in minneapolis. ted rollins is in chicago. and chad meyers is in the cnn severe weather center with the forecast. stephanie, you look so happy out there. >> reporter: you're so right, jake. it's bad when people who live in minneapolis are sending you tweets saying, good luck out there, i'm not going outside. that's how cold it is outside. even people used to the cold do not want to come outside. when you take a first breath, you can feel it it freeze through your nose. because it's so drastically and dangerously cold here, city officials are making sure that they are out patrolling looking for anyone who may need assistance, checking on elderly and animals as well. if they see someone, taking them to the hospital and to a shelter. that's what their priority is now. crime goes down tremendously in these situations. they do see an uptick in domestic issues because people are staying inside, but they are focusing on that. it's so cold here they closed down the schools. something that does not happen. the last time schools were closed was in 19 7. they are closing them down bauds they don't want children to be out waiting for the bus. in five minutes in this cold, your skin can freeze. they are taking serious precautions here. it's still very cold and it's the middle of the day. it was negative 25 when we looked at 5:00 in the morning. that's without the windchill. for another place that's doing its own little chilly dance, ted is in chicago. hi, ted. >> reporter: same deal down here. it's absolutely freezing. check out the chicago river with the mist coming across it. more importantly look at the michigan. avenue bridge. normally this time of day on a monday after a holiday, this bridge would be packed with pedestrians. michigan avenue would be packed as well. people have been told to stay home. public schools will be off tomorrow along with the suburban schools here in the chicago area. it's minus 12 degrees. but when you look at the flags, you add the wind chill and that gets it down to around minus 40 degrees. i can tell you, it it feels like minus 40 degrees. let's head to chad in the weather center in atlanta where it's nice and toasty. >> i'm very sorry that you can see a river steam in chicago in the winter. that's the difference between how cold the air is and how relatively warm the water is, which is probably about 34. there's a big enough difference that it looks like steam. arctic vortex, it's a low pressure dip in. the jet stream. it happens sometimes. there's a polar jet stream almost all the time. here's the north pole. it goes back and forth and keeps all the cold air bottled up here. until one of the troughs decides to do that. then all of a sudden all that cold air that's supposed to be up here gets released down here and we get cold. and that's what's happening now. that's where this vortex is going. it's sending all of the air that's supposed to be up in alaska, supposed to be in canada, it's not there anymore. it's down here by us. it's getting pushed to the south. it's 54 in boston right now. tomorrow morning it will be 11. the morning after, it will be 7. that's how cold this air is. 43 below in duluth. 39 below in green bay. 36 below in milwaukee. the pets feel it too. please make sure that you take care of the pets. at least they can get out of the wind and obviously that water in their water bowl isn't going to stay liquid very long. new york city, down to 11. it should be 27. tomorrow, 13. a big warm-up for you in the morning. it it doesn't get above freezing even in atlanta for the next 48 hours. we'll stay cold. that's the issue. pipes are going to begin to freeze. we talk about this this all the time. it's winter, it's cold, but when it gets this cold and been this cold, people die. so just be careful out there. don't go. outside. you know the tires a bald. you get a flat tire and it's so cold and you freeze in your car trying to get home. it's that cold out there. atlanta will be 7. new orleans will be 16. ever been to jackson square? there's plants everywhere. they will be dead or brought inside. that's how cold it's getting across the deep south because of the polar vortex. >> chad myers, thanks. it's difficult to do that in the cold and also look as though you're enjoying it. the cold weather put a freeze on air travel in the u.s. you're looking at long delays. if you're lucky enough to have a flight that hasn't been cancelled yet, we're tracking all this around the country. >> you said it, jake. all because of what we just saw on our screens there with stephanie as well as ted. so jetblue at this hour, they are reducing operations as we speak. in just one hour, they will completely shut down operations in new york, new jersey and boston airports. now the operations will not be back at 100% until 3:00 p.m. tomorrow. and they are blaming weather as well as new faa rules. the new rules mandate ten hours minimum rest period before flight. the airlines specifically jetblue say the restrictions are compounding the delays. they have more than two years to comply with this and to prepare. i want to talk about the ripple effect. that's what a lot of people are experiencing right now. they are stuck in airports. and they may look out the window and may say, look, the weather looks pretty good where i am. why is my flight delayed? let's look a this flight path with one aircraft. it's supposed to go from new york to houston, then up to dulles in the washington, d.c. area and to new orleans. so we look here in d.c., not too bad. new orleans, not too bad. you may be delayed because if that airplane by some chance runs into some problems in new york, it's not going to make it it to houston. that means it's not going to make it to you here in d.c. either. so what you have is a situation of a delay here for these people. eventually the airlines will find another airplane and eventually you will get to your destination, but it may be hours later before you can get there. this is a ripple effect that we're talking about here. so far today, we can tell you there have been nearly 5,000 delays and more than 3,600 cancellations. compare that to a normal day where you see about 200 cancellations and usually airlines are about 84% on time. that gives you a little context. >> just brutal. thanks so much. i want to turn to some other national news and a key vote later today to restore benefits to 1.3 million unemployed americans. two hours ago the senate returned from their holiday break. the bill they are considering would consider long-term jobless benefits. they were originally introduced in 208 under president bush and they already expired on december 28th. president obama and many in the democratic party want to reinstate and extend unemployment insurance. that was not included in. the deal that was passed before the end of the year. joining us from the white house, thank you for being on the show, the director of the national economic council. president obama is nudging lawmakers to vote in favor of extension. what's the math for us right now? 55 democrats, 1 republican, you need 4 republicans. are you any closer to getting there? >> i am not the person in charge of kouning the votes, but what i can tell you is extending unemployment benefits has historically enjoyed bipartisan support. president bush signed laws into effect for emergency unemployment compensation five times. and it was done on a bipartisan fashion five times. historically, that's been the case. and members have just gotten back from visiting their constituents. people are suffering because i have met them. they have gone to emergency situations. people were supposed to get their checks today and they are not in the mail because the program is not in existence. i hope congress will address that this week. we are hopeful that they will. >> some indicated they are open to the extension but they want some strings. here's what rand paul told abc news. >> i've always said that i'm not opposed to unemployment insurance. i'm opposed to having it without paying for it. the longer you have it, it provides some disincentive to work. >> i'd like you to respond to that. why not pay for it it with cuts elsewhere or raising taxes elsewhere? some way to pay for it. and two, the discussion that some people believe it's a disincentive for job seekers. >> sure. as i mentioned a few moments ago when president bush signed legislation five different times to extend benefits, there were no strings attached. 14 of the last 17 times that compensation has been passed, there have been no strings attached whatsoever. what this proposal now is to do it for three months and then during ha three-month period, we work on a longer-term solution to this issue. right now people are suffering. as to the second point, the evidence simply doesn't support th that. one of the requirements for the emergency unemployment benefits is that you must keep looking for a job. in fact, the evidence demonstrate when is you remove these benefits and people become even more detached from the labor market, that has a worsening effect because they get even more discouraged. i've spoken to people who have been looking for work for so long. the last thing they want to do is sit home and watch television. they want the dignity of work. they are not sitting home because they are getting $200 or $300 a week. they can barely pay their rent. they are making choices between their rent and medicine and food. they want nothing more than to get back to work. the emergency unemployment compensation is anything but a disincentive. >> i understand that in the past this was passed without cuts, but we're in a different situation. the deficit and the national debt is much, much higher, the national debt is higher than it's been in the the past. and republicans control the house and there are a number of republicans who would e vote for this if it was paid for with cuts elsewhere. why not try to meet them half way. find cuts that can be applied down the road and get this passed. >> we actually are in a different situation. the situation is this. never in the history of taking up unemployment compensation, emergency unemployment compensation has the long-term unemployment rate been this high. to put it differently, congress has never failed to extend emergency unemployment compensation benefits when you have long-term unemployment of the nature in the extent we have now. the economy is making progress. 45 months in a row to the tune of 8 million jobs. but the unemployment rate remains too high. the president would be the first to o say it. when president bush signed the law in 2007 or 2008, unemployment was 5.6 or 5.7%. the duration of unemployment was 17 weeks. now we have 36 weeks average duration. now is not the time to shut off this critical lifeline for so many people. and that's why this three-month proposal provides that opportunity to come up with a long-term fix. if they are able to figure out a mechanism for funding it it during that period, that would be great. in the meantime it's not called emergency compensation for nothi nothing. for these millions of workers and families, it's an absolute d disaster right now. we need to help them. >> thank you very much. coming up, it's not official but it sure feels like it's almost official. the political machine already in motion preparing for a hillary clinton run for president. has her campaign already started? plus big bonuses for the little guys. the huge payouts some auto workers are getting this year. 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