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U.S. Troops on High Alert amid Russia-Ukraine Tensions; British Prime Minister Accuses Putin of "Having Eye" on Other Nations; Clinical Trial Begins for Omicron-Specific Vaccine. Aired 11-11:30a ET

Aired January 25, 2022 - 11:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

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KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone. I'm Kate Bolduan. Here's what's we watch at this hour.

High alert: thousands of U.S. troops on standby to deploy to Europe as Russia builds up its forces at the border with Ukraine, raising fears of an invasion at any moment.

A new booster: Pfizer announcing it could soon have an Omicron- specific vaccine, as a new study shows just how crucial the current booster is to protect against it.

And blockbuster cases: from abortion rights to affirmative action, what the docket for the U.S. Supreme Court could tell, should tell you about the direction America is heading.

Thanks for being here, everybody.

We begin this hour with the growing threat of war in Eastern Europe. The United States putting 8,500 troops on heightened alert for possible deployment, as there is real fear a Russian invasion in Ukraine could be imminent.

The Pentagon said the U.S. troops that would be sent would be in support of NATO's response force. The Pentagon spokesperson is our guest this hour.

For Russia's part, they're now launching new military drills. And the Kremlin now blaming Washington for increasing tensions. This crisis presents a major test for the NATO alliance.

Can President Biden and European allies stay united in the face of the greatest threat in the region since the Cold War?

Let's begin with CNN's Barbara Starr live at the Pentagon for us this hour.

What more do you learn about these troops on heightened alert?

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Kate. Right now, the Pentagon is very clear that these troops are not on deployment orders yet. What has happened is they are on heightened alert, being told be more ready than you've been just in case you get deployment orders.

Now how would they go to Europe and what would trigger that?

Some troops could go unilaterally to countries where the U.S. works out arrangements but the bulk of the 8,500 are most likely to go as part of that NATO response force, if and when NATO activates that force.

This is a defensive measure, the Pentagon says. There is no intention of any kind of combat or offensive operations by U.S. or NATO forces. It is, of course, NATO, a defensive alliance.

The idea is some European allies think Baltics, Poland, Romania; these are some of the countries that are very nervous about Russian moves and they like to be shored up and get that NATO commitment on their territory.

What kind of capability could the U.S. bring to the table?

Combat brigades, essentially a ground force, intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, medical, logistics, that sort of thing, helicopters, being able to move people around, possibly even doing more exercises and training with local forces on the ground.

What we are waiting for is an announcement from the Pentagon on what specific units might be getting these preparation orders. They are trying to notify families, troops and units. And once those notifications are complete, the Pentagon said, it will tell the American public -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: Barbara, thank you so much for that. Really appreciate it.

The Biden administration is planning a series of congressional briefings on this issue later today, the Ukraine crisis. One key question to all of this.

Are diplomatic options for resolving the standoff with Russia dwindling?

CNN's Sam Kiley is live in Ukraine's capital of Kyiv and joins us now.

Sam, more world leaders are speaking out in this critical moment.

What's the very latest from there? SAM KILEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: They are speaking out and try to speak out I think in response to kind of vibrations coming from the Ukrainians, active reassurance being sought effectively by the Ukrainians, who've been quite rattled, almost angered by plans by the U.S., U.K., Australia and Germany to downsize their embassies here, Kate, indicating that the central government here in Ukraine immediately got on the front foot, tried to calm its population and also insisting that there would be no deal about Ukraine or affecting Ukraine done behind their backs.

That's been something they've been repeating consistently. And just as that was going on, of course, Boris Johnson, the British prime minister, speaking at prime minister's question time in Westminster, also keen to reassure the Ukrainians. This is what he said.

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BORIS JOHNSON, U.K. PRIME MINISTER: What Putin basically wants is to go back to the alter (ph) system of spheres of influence. And it's not just Ukraine, Madam Deputy Speaker, that he has his eye on.

[11:05:00]

JOHNSON: Therefore (ph), this moment now matters for the whole geometry and security architecture of Europe. And we must stand firm.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KILEY: And it's that security architecture that Boris Johnson referred to there, that Vladimir Putin has made it very clear he wants to undo, Kate. He wants turn the clock back to 1997, before so many Eastern European nations joined NATO, and something that NATO and other Europeans have completely ruled out.

BOLDUAN: Sam, thank you so much.

And joining me now is Pentagon press secretary John Kirby.

Thank you for being here, John, I appreciate your time.

ADM. JOHN KIRBY (RET.), PENTAGON PRESS SECRETARY: You bet.

BOLDUAN: I heard you say that these troops would be deployed as part of the NATO response force, a multinational force.

Who makes the final call then to deploy?

Is it NATO commanders or President Biden?

KIRBY: Well, in terms of the NATO response force, obviously, their activation would be a NATO decision to make. And that would be up to the secretary general, of course, in consultation with the Commander of Allied Forces in Europe, General Walters.

President Biden has agreed to make these troops available to the ready task force, if, in fact, it's activated. But not all of the troops we were talking about yesterday are, in fact, designated just for the readiness force for NATO.

Some of these are also being told to be on a heightened alert just for our own United States purposes, to see if there's a need for us to continue to reassure, on a bilateral basis, with some of our NATO allies over in Europe.

BOLDUAN: How quickly could these troops be heading overseas?

I know it takes them from a state of readiness from 10 days to five days and kind of progresses from there.

But how quickly do you envision they could be heading over?

KIRBY: We don't know the answer to that, Kate. All we've done here, Kate, yesterday is just put them on heightened alert posture, to be ready to go on a shorter bit of a tether there.

But there's been no activation, there's been no deployment orders. So it's really difficult to tell how soon this would happen. Frankly, a lot of this is going to depend on what Mr. Putin does or doesn't do, Kate.

If there's another incursion into Ukraine, that certainly, I would believe, could drive NATO and some of our allies to make other force posture decisions that they haven't made yet.

BOLDUAN: 8,500 percent U.S. military personnel on heightened alert.

Is this the ceiling of military personnel that the administration will be committing to this conflict, do you see?

KIRBY: What we're talking about today is about 8,500 on heightened alert. But as I said yesterday, we're certainly not going to rule out other options. Our job is to provide options to the president, to the commander in chief and we're going to continue to do that.

And so I would, I certainly would not rule out the possibility that we could be putting additional forces on heightened alert in the coming days and weeks and maybe even moving troops around Europe that are already there to bolster and to reassure some of our allies on the ground on the continent.

So I would not rule out the possibility that we could be talking about larger numbers in future days and weeks.

BOLDUAN: It sounds to me like the Pentagon was planning for many different contingencies in what you've just laid out there.

KIRBY: That's right. The big thing here is to make sure that, A, we're meeting our responsibilities to NATO, to the alliance, and B, that we're also meeting our commitments to some of our NATO allies and partners more specifically.

And then I think, C, to make sure we continue to provide security assistance to Ukraine so that they can defend themselves. We just shipped over three packages of assistance to them over the course of the last few days. There will be more coming.

So we're also very focused on making sure we can help the Ukrainian armed forces defend themselves as well.

BOLDUAN: When asked if the 8,500 could be deployed before a Russian incursion, I want to play for you what the deputy national security adviser Jon Finer just told CNN today.

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JON FINER, U.S. DEPUTY NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR: I don't think we're taking any options off the table with regard to that. They will not be deployed anywhere but on allied territory.

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BOLDUAN: "Will not be deployed anywhere but allied territory."

But is it a possibility?

KIRBY: A possibility to go somewhere other than allied territory, no. That's not what this is about. Remember, the vast majority --

(CROSSTALK)

BOLDUAN: Sorry, John, he was speaking -- when he asked specifically if they could be deployed before a Russian incursion and he says he's not taking anything off the table.

Do you see that as a possibility?

KIRBY: I absolutely think we want to make sure that we provide as much flexibility to the president and to the alliance as we can.

And as I said yesterday, I mean, we are not specifically defining time bounds here in terms of when they could deploy. So I think Mr. Finer is exactly right. We're not taking any options off the table in terms of the "when." It's really just right now about making sure they are ready to go on a little bit shorter timeline than they were before.

BOLDUAN: Is there any chance that these men and women could end up in Ukraine?

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KIRBY: Again, the president's made it clear that what he wants from the Department of Defense are options to reassure our NATO allies and, as Mr. Finer said, on allied territory. That's what our focus is right now.

I would remind that we still have some small number of trainers inside Ukraine. They've been there for many months. And they're still on the ground, helping advise Ukrainian armed forces. And what we'll do with them, I think, depends on what the security situation looks like.

But the president has been very clear that, from a military perspective, he wants us focused on reassuring our NATO allies. And that's what we're intending to do.

BOLDUAN: John, I'm curious, what do you want, does the president want, does the Pentagon want, to alert, to tell Russia where U.S. troops are deploying in order to avoid a miscalculation?

Or is the element of surprise still important when we're looking at the conflict we're looking at now?

KIRBY: This isn't about surprise on our part, Kate. This is about reassuring to allies, reassurance to allies. And so, I mean, look, just yesterday, I stood up at the podium and I gave a number and I said, we're putting them on a heightened alert.

We're being nothing but transparent about what we're doing militarily. A couple of days ago, we announced the beginning of an aircraft carrier exercise, called Neptune Strike in the Adriatic Sea.

We have been nothing but transparent and we're going to continue to do that to the maximum degree possible. You're not getting the same transparency out of Moscow, quite frankly. They continue to add forces around the western part of their country, around Ukraine, into Belarus.

And they've been nothing but non-transparent about the intent on this. Now we still don't think Mr. Putin has made a decision. We still think there's time and space for diplomacy. But obviously, more transparency out of Moscow about their intentions would certainly be welcome.

BOLDUAN: Well, the U.S. has supported Ukraine in various ways for some time. Ukraine is not a member of NATO, not bound by the -- not bound by the treaty to come to Ukraine's defense.

Can you speak to skeptical Americans right now, why is this in the interest of America?

KIRBY: What is in our interest is to maintain security and stability on the European continent. We have tens of thousands of American forces deployed, either rotationally or permanently, on the European continent. Security and stability there is very much in our national security interest.

And we still believe that we have an obligation to help Ukraine defend itself and to defend its borders and that's why we continue the security assistance. And we're not alone in that, Kate.

I would remind the American people that other of our European allies and friends are also helping Ukrainian armed forces defend themselves, sending security assistance packages to them.

This is something the entire international community should be aligned on and, frankly, we're seeing that kind of alignment inside the NATO alliance.

BOLDUAN: John Kirby, thanks for being here.

KIRBY: My pleasure. Thank you. BOLDUAN: Joining me for more on this, CNN global affairs analyst,

Susan Glasser, a staff writer for "The New Yorker."

Thank you for being here, Susan. You heard the latest from the Pentagon. I thought it was a really interesting conversation with John Kirby and kind of where they are, the contingencies they're planning for. There could be more troops if they get on a heightened state of readiness to deploy.

So how real do you think the possibility of a land war is in Europe?

What do you think of this moment?

SUSAN GLASSER, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Well, look. Actions have consequences. And I think it's very striking that Putin understood that one of the consequences of this extraordinary mobilization of, I believe we're seeing now, it's close to 130,000 Russian troops on the border of Ukraine, was going to be a reaction by the United States and NATO.

It's ironic because, of course, Putin says the reason the troops are there is because of NATO but in fact he's triggering this response from NATO. You see this extraordinary statement from Moscow this morning.

Well, the United States is destabilizing the situation.

Can you imagine 130,000 troops on the border of Ukraine; the United States announces plans to mobilize 8,000. And yet that's what Russians, the Russian government is complaining about.

It's just a very alarming moment, Kate, because this escalation ladder, once you start going up it, how are we going to stop this?

BOLDUAN: Kirby also, John Kirby also said, when we spoke, that there's still room, time and space, if you will, for diplomacy, even after these announcements and these moves they're talking about.

But does this announcement, coming from the president and the Pentagon, of putting troops on a heightened state of alert, does it indicate very clearly that the chance for diplomacy is dwindling?

GLASSER: Well, I mean, it is notable that, in recent days, what you've heard, after the last round of conversations that was Tony Blinken, secretary of state, speaking with the Russian foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, since then, you've not heard a lot from the White House about negotiations or diplomacy.

What you heard is language, saying the Russians are not deescalating. We don't see signs of them backing down.

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GLASSER: The United States is done with gradualism. That was a message of the briefing earlier this morning, when it came to sanctions that the U.S. is preparing to impose, suggesting that they have changed their approach from 2014, when Russia illegally annexed the Crimean peninsula from Ukraine and the administration is now saying, we're going to actually take a tougher and different approach than we did at that time.

So none of this suggests that a diplomatic breakthrough is imminent, to say the least, Kate.

BOLDUAN: And also, the view from the Pentagon, as we just heard, as we also heard from the White House, is the NATO alliance is united. But the Polish prime minister was speaking out today about fractures in the NATO alliance in response to this conflict with Russia, saying this, this is from the prime minister.

"A great disappointment and amongst others is Germany's withholding consent to supply arms to Estonia, a country that is preparing to defend against an aggressor."

He added he's concerned about Germany's reaction in the face of the threat from Russia.

What is going on with Germany?

GLASSER: You know, I think the Germany factor is an important reason why I think this is -- this crisis is happening right now. Putin is very, very attentive to the politics of the region and this sort of major political moment in the area has come with the transition of Angela Merkel, the longest serving European leader -- she's just left office; a new government has come into office.

This is an incredible test for the coalition government of Olaf Scholz, the new chancellor. And what you're seeing, I think, is not just that Germany has fissures or disagreements with other European allies and the United States but also within that German coalition. This has proved an enormous and immediate test to foreign policy.

The U.S. and others will put enormous pressure on Germany if Russia makes a military step toward Ukraine, to absolutely cut off, once and for all, the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline.

But some of the politicians within that new German coalition are pushing back and saying, no, the German naval chief just had to resign the other day for making an outrageous statement, essentially saying you've got to admire what Putin is up to.

He was forced out. But I think it does underscore some uncertainty on how this new German government will react.

BOLDUAN: Susan, it's great to see you. Thank you so much.

GLASSER: Thank you.

BOLDUAN: Also developing at this hour, North Korea has fired two cruise missiles overnight. That's according to the South Korean military. The launch marks North Korea's fifth missile test just this month, a dramatic increase from recent years. Kim Jong-un indicated last week that he may soon restart long-range

missile and nuclear device tests, which he suspended before his summit with former president Trump in 2018.

Still ahead for us, Pfizer starts clinical trials for an Omicron- specific vaccine. What it tells us about where this pandemic is headed, details and a live report next.

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BOLDUAN: We do have some breaking news. Pfizer announcing the start of clinical trials for a new vaccine, this one specifically targeting the Omicron variant. The pharmaceutical giant said it's already manufacturing doses in anticipation that it would eventually be approved.

Pfizer says it expects to have this new vaccine type ready in March. CNN's Jacqueline Howard with more on all of this for us.

What more are you hearing about this?

JACQUELINE HOWARD, CNN HEALTH CORRESPONDENT: Kate, this trial will evaluate the Omicron specific vaccine through different regimens. It will look at how the vaccine -- will evaluate the vaccine as a two- dose series, compared with a single booster shot.

What we're hearing, this trial will include up to 1,420 participants, ages 18 to 55. These participants will be broken up into three different groups. In one group, the participants would have received two doses of the current vaccine and then they'll receive one or two doses of the Omicron-based vaccine.

Group two, these participants would have already had three regular doses. They'll receive one dose of either the current vaccine or the Omicron-based vaccine.

And then in group three, these will be unvaccinated participants. They'll receive three doses of the Omicron vaccine.

And again, Kate, the whole purpose of this is to really evaluate this Omicron-based vaccine as to whether it, how it works as two doses compared with a single booster shot. And this is something that vaccine makers have been talking about for a while, developing variant specific vaccines.

So the results of this trial will be really interesting to see how this Omicron based vaccine works and whether this might set the stage for the future development of other variant-specific vaccines -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: Jacqueline, thank you. Joining me for more on this is Dr. Carlos Del Rio, executive associate

dean of Emory School of Medicine at Grady Health System.

Doctor, on the news Jacqueline was just laying out, the details of the clinical trials getting started for the Omicron-specific vaccine from Pfizer, when do you think we'll know whether we need it?

DR. CARLOS DEL RIO, EXECUTIVE ASSOCIATION DEAN, EMORY UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MEDICINE AT GRADY HEALTH SYSTEM: Well, you know, first of all, we need to see if it works. What it does, right.

We know the current vaccines, while they have lost vaccine efficacy against sympathetic infection, they're still pretty effective against hospitalizations and severe disease and death. So the first thing is to know what additional thing you're getting with an Omicron-specific vaccine and whether you use it as a primary series or just to boost.

And that's how the study was designed. After that, then we need to see when to use it and it will be really important to see.

If you've already been boosted, do you get any additional benefit from getting another shot with the Omicron-specific one?

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DEL RIO: We know from the current vaccines, that additional shot data from Israel suggests you don't get additional benefit. So I think there's a lot of questions to be asked and I think the most important thing is can we develop this booster-specific vaccine as variant- specific vaccines and when do we use them.

And I caution you that we need to be careful because, if other variants emerge, this Omicron-specific vaccine may not have adequate coverage against future variants. So it will also be important from a policy standpoint to see where to use them.

BOLDUAN: It kind of leads to a question of, are we chasing the variants?

Because if it's not available until March, how much of a difference do you think this could make?

DEL RIO: Well, that's a good question. And I'm not sure it's going to make a lot of difference. It depends what happens with Omicron long- term.

Does it go away or remain in the background here, right?

But the other important thing is to see how companies develop what we call pan-coronavirus vaccines. In other words, we need vaccines not developed against one specific strain, like the vaccines we currently have were developed against the Wuhan strain, what we call the ancestral strain.

And they then lose efficacy on future strains. We need to have a more pancoronavirus vaccine, one that doesn't really matter which is your variant, you'll still have efficacy. And that really is where the holy grail of vaccinology is looking at.

BOLDUAN: The bigger question is, what's for you a measure or indicator that you'll see, that will make you comfortable that -- thinking that the pandemic has become endemic and is -- essentially that this virus, what we're facing, is manageable?

DEL RIO: I think there are going to be two things. One, we will see a decrease in the number of hospitalizations and, number two, we need to see a decrease in the number of deaths. We are still having over 2,000 deaths per day in our country and that's clearly an unacceptable level.

I think most of us would like to see the number of deaths drop about -- to about 100 deaths per day, in which, in that case, will put you at par with approximately the number of deaths we see from the flu on a yearly basis.

And if that's the case, I think we'll be looking at something that looks more like the flu. At this point in time, we're still way above those numbers.

BOLDUAN: Yes, just, looking at kind of mitigation efforts, in New York, a Supreme Court judge has struck down the mask mandate for indoor public places, including schools and nursing homes and public transport.

The mandate can remain in effect, though, while it's being appealed.

But from a public health standpoint, what does all of this legal fighting that we've seen, not just in New York but in many states, about mitigation measures do to efforts to keep people safe?

DEL RIO: Well, I think it's unfortunate that this has to be litigated in the courts and cannot be, you know, done as public health. I think two things, if you read the ruling, the Supreme Court is saying the governor is above his -- the governor is above her ability to mandate things, because there's no longer a public health emergency. So number one, you declare it a public health emergency.

But number two is saying the legislator has the ability to do that. So maybe the governor doesn't but the legislator does. And again, we all need to work together as governments, as societies, as individuals in trying to mitigate the impact of COVID-19.

And what we do really, should be done in the best interest of people. We need to think about what's best for the population and how do we implement those things in order to continue both keeping people safe but also being able to work and do the things that are necessary.

BOLDUAN: Yes, exactly. Good to see you. Thank you so much, Doctor.

DEL RIO: Take care.

BOLDUAN: Coming up for us, London police now investigating parties at the British prime minister's office, held during strict COVID lockdowns. What does this mean for Boris Johnson now?

Details in a live report next.