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Putin Holds Press Conference Amid Troop Buildup Near Ukraine; Threats Force Black Colleges To Cancel, Postpone Classes; Biden To Visit NYC To Discuss Efforts To Combat Gun Violence. Aired 11:30a-12p ET

Aired February 01, 2022 - 11:30   ET

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

[11:30:00]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN HOST: Let me read you one quote from The Washington Post on this. We know that two doses isn't enough, and we get that, said one of the people familiar with the situation. The idea is, let's go ahead and start the review of two doses. If the data hold up in the submission, you could start kids on their primary baseline months earlier than if you don't do anything until the third dose data comes in. What do you think of that?

DR. PAUL OFFIT, MEMBER, FDA VACCINE ADVISORY COMMITTEE: That assumes that the third dose works, that it's safe, and that it's effective, which I think is an assumption no one's going to make. You know, we want to see that anything that we recommend moving forward is, stands alone as something that is safe and something that's effective for children. We're not going to sort of count on future data to make sure that the things work.

I don't think it's going to play out that way. But again, we don't all know the data so we're sort of trying to read between the lines as to what people mean, what they say. On February 15, we're going to be able to see what we're talking about.

BOLDUAN: So at this moment, for you, it just doesn't make sense to even be thinking towards the -- towards any of it until the data is public.

OFFIT: Exactly. Why don't we -- you know, we want to make sure that the children are protected. I mean, certainly children, yes, less than five years of age can be seriously infected, they can go to the hospital, they can go to the ICU, and they can occasionally die. It occurs less commonly say, obviously, much less commonly, even those over 65, which is why if you're going to make that recommendation for this group, that tends to get infected less frequently and less severely, you, number one, want to make sure there's a robust safety database.

And to that, it works before we move forward because we need to maintain the trust of the American public that we're standing between the American public and the pharmaceutical companies to make sure that people only get products that are clearly shown to be safe and effective.

BOLDUAN: I'm going to remain very hopeful and also very much put February 15 on the calendar for us to speak to you right after that. It's great to see you, Dr. Offit, thank you.

All right, coming up, we're going to take a look at live pictures with Russian President Vladimir Putin holding a press conference that just started right now as the world is denouncing Russia's aggressive actions toward Ukraine. What is the Russian President saying about the crisis there? A live report from Moscow next.

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[11:35:00]

BOLDUAN: Happening right now, Russian President Vladimir Putin holding a press conference as we speak, his first time really speaking out publicly in weeks on the Ukraine crisis. Putin is there with one of his closest allies, the authoritarian leader of Hungary. Russia's Foreign Minister also just met with the U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on the phone, the U.S. once again urging on that call and the readout afterward immediate Russian de-escalation as, of course, we know Russian troops continue to amass on the border with Ukraine.

Let's get to CNN International Diplomatic Editor, Nic Robertson. He's live in Moscow with the very latest. Nic, what is the latest there? Is there any sign of a breakthrough?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Again, it looks like we're exactly where we were a week ago. President Putin has not yet addressed the United States' letter to him that we're told is going to come later, there will be a full response that has not been issued yet. President Putin has literally just started talking about Ukraine.

Interesting when he was talking about his relationship with Viktor Orban in Hungary, how he was pleased to have agreed on a long-term gas contract with Hungary until 2036, 1/5 the mark -- the current market rate for gas in Europe. And he kind of indicated because he likes Hungary, he was able to do that. It's an implicit threat I think, to others. The Hungarian leader saying that he's here on a peace mission, telling President Putin that no European leader wants to go to war, the only one who has solved this politically.

But what we heard from the Russian Foreign Minister after his conversation with Secretary of State Antony Blinken really sounds like a status quo, saying that Russia's main concerns hadn't been addressed, giving a little bit more detail on some of the things that could be addressed like arms controls agreements, open skies, these are agreements that existed in the past for spy planes for U.S. and Russia to overfly each other without notice, that he was leaving space for those things, perhaps to find agreement, but the central issues not addressed, so diplomacy seems open.

But a direct answer from President Putin, we haven't had that unless is quite literally given it while we've been speaking on-air here. And that doesn't seem to be that -- it doesn't seem so far to be the case.

BOLDUAN: Nic, thank you so much for that. We also know that British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is in Ukraine today meeting with President Zelensky to show his support. The leaders will be holding a press conference also will be happening in just minutes and we'll keep a close eye on that.

Ahead of all of this, let me bring in right now CNN Military Analyst, Colonel Cedric Leighton, and Evelyn Farkas a former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Russia, Ukraine, and Eurasia. Thanks for being here. We're listening to the translation coming in of this Putin press conference level and we know that this is really the first time in weeks that he's going to be -- that he's speaking out really since late December.

What do you make of the timing, what do you think people should be listening for? I'm seeing already some reporting that he's at least said in some way shape or form that the West has not satisfied, my tune, main security demands seem to be one thing he's already suggesting.

[11:40:00]

EVELYN FARKAS, FORMER U.S. DEPUTY ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF DEFENSE FOR RUSSIA, UKRAINE, EURASIA: Right, Kate. Well, thanks for having me on. I think what we're seeing right now is that Vladimir Putin -- President Putin feels that he has to give an answer to the world because yesterday, the Biden administration and our ambassador gave a very forceful explanation, actually demanded forcefully from the Russian Federation an explanation for their 100,000 plus troops suddenly on the border with Ukraine and the Russians fell short, and that was in front of the entire world. That's something that I think was a long time coming.

Frankly, we should have kept the drumbeat up ever since Russia invaded Georgia in 2008 or certainly since the Crimea annexation. So I think he's feeling that he has to say something to the world. But as you said, it's not too encouraging. Nothing that he said thus far, you know, indicates that he's not going to use his military yet.

BOLDUAN: Yes, I would -- it's a great point. Colonel, on the UN Security Council meeting, let me play for you what the UN Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said just after that meeting broke up yesterday where members confronted Russia publicly. Let me play this for you.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LINDA THOMAS-GREENFIELD, U.S. AMBASSADOR TO UNITED NATIONS: But we call for this meeting to allow the Russians to give us an explanation of what their actions are. We didn't hear much. They didn't give us the answers that any of us would have hoped that they would provide.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: She doesn't seem satisfied with what happened. Colonel, what's your read?

CEDRIC LEIGHTON, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Well, I would agree with the ambassador. I think she's absolutely right. You know, it's kind of interesting both sides are grading each other's term papers here. You know, Foreign Minister Lavrov was pretty dismissive of Secretary Blinken's paper submission when it arrived in Moscow and it seems like we're doing the same thing as what the Russians have done.

I would say, you know, from a -- you know, from the perspective that I have, it would be remiss for us not to complain about the Russian response, it is not sufficient, it is not something that explains directly what the Russians are up to and it certainly doesn't tell us why the troops are there. And that's, I think, the major problem, Kate.

BOLDUAN: I mean, no matter what is being said publicly, Evelyn, I get the sense you're becoming less and less optimistic deploy -- about the success of diplomacy at this point, why?

FARKAS: Well, I'll tell you, actually, I'm having mixed feelings about it. So I started off pessimistic about well, over 10 -- two weeks ago, about 50 percent or more likelihood of war, I went about a week ago to 80 percent likelihood or more.

Now, I actually am a little bit more optimistic only because I feel that the administration and our European allies have put together a really strong deterrence, we made it really clear that the economic bite will be hard, meaning, you know, Russia and the Russians will have to pay and probably not just the oligarchs.

We've also provided support to Ukraine. The Ukrainian government is held up under this pressure. That's part of why I think they're being more relaxed, it's part of their plan just to you know, stay in existence, not crumble.

And then this diplomatic effort, I think, you know, Russia's hopefully been a bit embarrassed in front of the world. I'm not relaxed still, by any means is, as you said, I'm still pessimistic and I was kind of, you know, professionally raised in the defense world as a foreign policy analyst so we've been trained to think pessimistically worst- case scenario. So I am still afraid that diplomacy isn't what Putin is going to pick but I think there's much more pressure on him and much more clear clarity on the cost.

BOLDUAN: Let's see what happens, let's see what more comes from this press conference and, of course, then the reaction from the -- from world leaders to what Putin lays out as we're listening to this translation coming in, in real-time. Thank you both very much. It's great to see you.

LEIGHTON: You bet. BOLDUAN: Coming up for us, a series of threats targeting historically black colleges and universities forcing them to cancel classes, the FBI is now involved, details in a live report next.

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[11:45:00]

BOLDUAN: Developing at this hour a scary situation still on -- still unfolding in North Carolina. A massive fire at a fertilizer plant near Winston-Salem is burning out of control forcing thousands of residents to leave their homes. Officials are evacuating people within a one- mile radius over concerns of a potential explosion after the fire jumped to a rail car full of an explosive compound. The evacuation zone includes Wake Forest University which canceled classes and also a nearby prison with over 200 inmates.

And also this for the second day in a row, we are tracking a series of bomb threats at historically black colleges and universities across the U.S. Already today, 13 schools have either postponed or canceled classes because of the threats. CNN's Joe Johns is tracking this for us in Washington. John -- Joe, what are the schools' saying about this, buddy?

JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, Kate, it's really mostly about internal communications are trying to deal with right now letting their students know what's going on. What a number of these schools have been dealing with through most of the morning is getting their campuses into and eventually out of various stages of lockdown or shelter in place orders. A couple of the affected schools are dealing with the problem by going to virtual or remote learning.

[11:50:00]

JOHNS: Now, as you said, this is the second day in a row for these bomb threats, the third day in a month. At our last count, there were more than a dozen schools that got bomb threats, most of them in the eastern United States. So what schools are affected, you know, HBCUs, there's a ton of them out there.

And these are some of the names you've heard, Howard Spellman, Jackson State, Kentucky State, Xavier, many others. We're talking about schools stretching from the mid-Atlantic region all the way down to Florida and Louisiana. No explosive devices have been found, according to authorities but it's the disruption that creates the issues apparently started. Very early this morning, Howard University here in D.C. said the threat came in around 2:55 a.m. Eastern Time, the second threat to Howard in 24 hours.

A spokesman said they were able to get done with it quickly and get the campus back onto a regular normal operating schedule, Kate, back to you.

BOLDUAN: Joe Johns, thank you, great to see you. So President Biden will be traveling to New York on Thursday where his focus will be in combating gun violence, an issue that has become front and center in New York City and so many others across the country. The President is urging the nation's governors to do more and lean on help from the pandemic relief package, Congress approved, to invest more in public safety.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: There's a lot of challenges out there that we're not even talking to directly today. There's so many but the surge of gun violence since the start of this pandemic. I made it clear we should use these funds to combat violent crime as well including hiring additional police officers and investing in community violence interventions that are proven to work in communities.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: Joining me right now is a mayor who has been confronting head-on a rise in violent crime since she took office in the spring. St. Louis Mayor Tishaura Jones is back with me. It's great to see you, Mayor, thank you for being here.

TISHAURA JONES, MAYOR OF ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI: Thank you, Kate.

BOLDUAN: To remind folks because we've talked about this in the past when you took office, you had a real problem on your hands. But since, as both of -- most other cities have been seeing a rise in violent crime, St. Louis is seeing a drop. Homicides in St. Louis down by about 26 percent in 2021 after hitting a record-high in 2020, so what is working in St. Louis?

JONES: Well, again, thank you for having me this morning. We're focused on three things, deterrence, intervention, and prevention. And within those three things, we're trying to make sure that we're using data to guide our deployment strategies, we're using alternative methods of response like sending out an officer with a licensed clinical social worker. And prevention, we have to address the root cause of crime because we cannot just address the symptoms without addressing the root causes.

BOLDUAN: Can you pinpoint one thing that made the difference in St. Louis?

JONES: No, there isn't one thing. This is all hands on deck. This is involving our community partners with our intervention methods with care violence and Project Hockey and organization for black struggle in the Urban League. Everybody has a part to play and everybody's playing their part. We have to have a good relationship with our community if we're going to solve crimes.

Our crime-solving rate is up to 55 percent from in the 30s, the previous year. And also again, we're deploying the right -- professional to the right call. It's about making sure that when we do get those calls at our 911 Center we deploy the right professional, sometimes it's not always an officer, it could be a licensed clinical social worker, other behavioral health professional. Also, we have violent interrupters in several neighborhoods, who are

trusted individuals in those communities, talking to people, linking them to resources, linking them the jobs. So you know, it's an all- hands-on-deck approach.

BOLDUAN: And everyone, of course -- you know that other mayors across the country, everyone's looking for help, looking for a fix, looking for a silver bullet and it makes sense you can't pinpoint one thing because it all dovetails together to show success in St. Louis. You have President Biden, though coming to New York City later this week to focus on this very issue as New York is suffering so much right now from gun violence. What would you like to hear from the President himself that you think would actually make a difference to help with the efforts that you're already kind of putting in place on the ground?

JONES: We have to do something about the proliferation of guns in our communities, full stop. So we need gun control legislation from the federal level and the state level. Unfortunately, Missouri has a love affair with the Second Amendment and has passed so many laws relaxing our gun -- relaxing gun control, that everyone has access to a gun and that doesn't make anybody safer, our law enforcement included.

[11:55:00]

JONES: We had a shooting just earlier last week that injured two of our officers. So, you know, we have to do something about the presence of guns in our community and make sure that they don't get into the wrong hands.

BOLDUAN: We also, when you look at New York and compare, right, New York State is some of the strictest gun laws in the country and New York City is still seeing such a surge in gun violence, like, what do you do with that?

JONES: Well, again it has to be an all-hands-on-deck strategy. We cannot police or arrest our way out of this. We have to invest our way out of this, taking a page from Lori Lightfoot's handbook, you know. And in St. Louis, we're seeing-- we're seeing results because we have developed that approach that it has to be the community and law enforcement. It can't be an either/or strategy.

We have to stop pitting this -- pitting the community against law enforcement, we have to work together. And what we're doing in St. Louis is working, you know. The community is doing their part, and Law enforcement is doing their part.

BOLDUAN: And it's great to highlight, while we see a lot of the bad, to highlight where progress is being made. Thank you, Mayor, for coming on. It's good to see you.

JONES: Thank you.

BOLDUAN: Thank you all so much for being with me AT THIS HOUR. INSIDE POLITICS starts after this.

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