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At This Hour

Russia Begins Massive Military Exercise With Belarus; Top U.S. General Spoke With Belarus Counterpart Amid Exercises; Nathan Chen Wins Gold Medal In Men's Figure Skating. Aired 11:30a-12p ET

Aired February 10, 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]

JENNIFER RODGERS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Overturn the election. And finally, there's the classified information issue. Of course, classified information mishandling is a crime. DOJ takes that very seriously. If there is classified information involved, I would expect DOJ to take a look at that, but there are some problems with that as well.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN HOST: Yes, definitely. So there are other aspects, kind of bizarre aspect of it, and there's an upcoming book coming out by Maggie Haberman, she's reporting that from time to time, Trump White House residents staff discovered wads of printed paper clogging a toilet. How does that add to this discussion?

RODGERS: Well, it's another instance if it's proven to be accurate of the destruction of information. I mean, it's a violation of the Presidential Records Act to destroy official information. One of the problems with it ending up in the sewer pipes is it's hard to tell what it was, it's hard to tell if it's official records that are subject to the act or not.

But if they somehow could establish that, it would be a clear violation of the act. And there's also something about that kind of destruction that suggests that it's more than just, you know, tearing it into two pieces and throwing it on the floor. It's more than just disregarding the law. It's maybe more purposeful, maybe leaning more towards the obstruction side of the house, but again, there's a lot of facts that would need to be proven in order to establish those sorts of things.

BOLDUAN: Absolutely. Good to see you, Jennifer. Thank you.

RODGERS: Thanks.

BOLDUAN: Coming up for us. The eyes of the West are on massive military exercises between Russia and Belarus. What do 10 days of drills mean to the Ukraine crisis?

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[11:35:00]

BOLDUAN: Developing at this hour, Russia and Belarus have begun 10 days of joint military drills, exercises being closely watched as Russia continues to threaten invasion of Ukraine. On the diplomatic front, President Biden is now expected to speak tomorrow with European and NATO leaders about Russia's true build-up at the border. CNN's Nic Robertson is live in Moscow with the very latest on all of this. Nic, what is the latest you're tracking?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yes. Well, the Russians are calling this joint exercise, Allied Resolve 2022 and they say that this is aimed at repelling any threat that may come across their border and they're specifically pointing that threat to being NATO.

Not only are they building up forces around Ukraine to the north with joint exercises in Belarus, but in the south, in the sea south of Ukraine and the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov, they have massive naval military exercises going on and were effectively shutting down a lot of access -- a lot of shipping access to that southern coast.

That southern coastline of Ukraine, potentially strategically important for Russia, should it decide to do a land grab because it can then connect Russia proper with Crimea that had annexed back in 2014. NATO Secretary-General today, telling the Russians, NATO, not a threat.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JENS STOLTENBERG, NATO SECRETARY-GENERAL: This is a dangerous moment for European security. The number of Russian forces is going up. The warning time for a possible attack is going down. NATO is not a threat to Russia but we must be prepared for the worst.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTSON: And the worst, trying to head that off, British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss in Moscow today meeting with her counterpart Sergei Lavrov, the Russian Foreign Minister telling him to avoid bloodshed and take the path of diplomacy. But their two-hour meeting, ending in acrimony, Lavrov is saying that the British just were listening, and Liz Truss effectively saying that the Russians are lying about the threat they perceive. It's coming unglued at a diplomatic level, at least between those two.

BOLDUAN: Wow. Great to see you, Nic. Thank you for your reporting. Joining me now for more on this is CNN Military Analyst and retired Lieutenant General Mark Hertling. General, it's great to see you. The Pentagon just confirmed that the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs spoke with his counterpart from Belarus in the midst of these drills. And Barbara Starr says this is the first time a U.S. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff has had any official communication with their Belarusian counterpart. How significant is that?

MARK HERTLING, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: It's true. Even in Europe when I commanded there, Kate, I never talked to the Belarusians either, even though they were part of the European footprint. They're just not that amicable to interrelationships, engagements. We invited them to several conferences we had, they just turned it down. But the connection between Russia and Belarus is critically important.

Belarus is seen truthfully, I saw it this way as Commander there and I'm sure the chairman sees it the same way, they are a proxy of the Russian state so that's why you just don't engage with the commander. And I'd add to the fact their army isn't that good.

BOLDUAN: Starr is also reporting along with Jeremy Herb on signals, I think is the best way to describe it, that the U.S. is watching, for that will be the first signs that an invasion by Russia is underway in Ukraine. How do -- is this something that typically happens and something that we're looking at here? I mean how do they game this out?

[11:40:00]

HERTLING: Yes. In any kind of contingency operation, Kate, a military commander in conjunction with the State Department will have what they call, I hate to use this term, triggers. But you literally have a stoplight chart. When everything is going well, you have a green, if things start picking up a little bit, you start seeing yellow and warning lights going on.

When you think an attack is intimate -- imminent, it gets into the red category, when a lot of things are happening, that you actually defined beforehand. These aren't something that just occurs and you say, oh, boy, that's important, we have to mark that down. You literally say, hey, if this happens, we need to start preparing that and begin our contingency operations. I'm sure that the list of things that NATO is watching, that the U.S. is watching is long and very complicated, concerning a potential incursion by Russia.

BOLDUAN: I want to get your take as well because CNN is reporting that Russia's top general is also in Belarus, on the ground for these military exercises over the next 10 days. Does that tell you anything about these exercises or what's happening at this moment?

HERTLING: Yes. What's interesting is that top general, a guy named Gerasimov. He is famously known by some to have created this thing called the Gerasimov doctrine, which uses asymmetric warfare, the gray zone, systematic attempts to use things other than military force to bring down a foreign adversary.

So this is a guy who is very well versed in military action, but he's also versed in things like political action, information, warfare, economic warfare, cyber-attacks, all sorts of things that lead to the ability of the Russians to say, hey, we didn't do anything, we didn't cross any borders. But in fact, they're trying to destabilize a nation.

Now, people debate whether it's a doctrine or not, but Gerasimov is very famous for having led several activities in various nations with this kind of approach to warfare.

You got to remember too, Kate, you know, in the West, we think of war and peace. The Russians think of continuous competition, continuous conflict, they don't think of differentiation between war and peace. They're at something all the time, one thing or another, whether it's outright kinetic activity or some kind of less than kinetic activity against an adversary.

BOLDUAN: It's good to see you, General, thank you. Coming up for us --

HERTLING: Always a pleasure.

BOLDUAN: Thank you. Coming up for us, Olympic controversy. A Russian figure skater has tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs. What do we know about that, and what does it mean for the competition going forward? That's next.

But first, we all know eating healthy is important. But what you eat also affects your brain. Here's Dr. Sanjay Gupta in this week's "CHASING LIFE."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: I'm Dr. Sanjay Gupta, host of CNN's CHASING LIFE podcast. It's no secret that what you eat affects the health of your body, but there's also a lot of emerging evidence that it also impacts your brain. The gut is kind of like your second brain, it's called the gut-brain connection. Think of it like this, your gut contains roughly 39 trillion microbes, bacteria, and fungi, and viruses.

Now, some of them are good, they help you break down your food, they keep you healthy, but others can be bad, causing things like inflammation. That whole ecosystem of helpful and harmful microbes is called your microbiome. And it affects everything from your mood to your immunity. Food is the message you give your body every time you eat.

And thinking about it in the context of your microbiome is important, and actually not that hard. One thing that helped me was keeping a food journal, not necessarily to count calories but to really note how I felt mentally, emotionally after eating certain foods. For example, I found out that fermented foods actually helped me focus.

Now, of course, cutting back on processed foods is important because those foods, they sort of carpet bomb your entire microbiome, and introducing more vegetables and fruits with lots of colors into your diet, that's always going to be a good rule of thumb. Nutritional specialist, Dr. Uma Naidoo's biggest tip is to focus less on weight loss and more on your overall health.

DR. UMA NAIDOO, NUTRITIONAL SPECIALIST: If the eating for inside of our body, the outside will follow. Because by taking care of our brain, our gut, the rest of our organs, the weight will come off because we're going to be eating healthier foods.

GUPTA: And you can hear more about how to optimize your health on CHASE LIFE wherever you get your podcasts.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[11:45:00]

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[11:50:00]

BOLDUAN: Following big developments at the Winter Olympics right now, specifically within the game's premier sport, figure skating. American Nathan Chen won his first-ever gold at the Olympics with a huge performance in the free skate. That victory though is being overshadowed somewhat by a new scandal. A Russian teen figure skater tested positive for a banned substance -- a banned drug. The investigation is delaying the medal ceremony in the team competition, which wrapped up days ago.

Joining me now live from Beijing is CNN's Sports Analyst Christine Brennan. She's a sports columnist for USA Today. Let's start with the fun, Christine, and then get to the controversy. Nathan Chen winning gold in men's figure skating, talk to me about his road to getting there. He seems like an exceptional person beyond athletics.

CHRISTINE BRENNAN, CNN SPORTS ANALYST: Oh, he's terrific. I've known him since he was a little kid. And this is so well deserved and just a lovely thing to see an athlete who is able to overcome defeat. And it was just four years ago, Kate, that the 2018 Olympic Games were in the short program, he was a medal favorite then as a teenager, and he finished 17th in the short program. 17th, it was terrible. He had a great long program, won that, and it was fifth overall.

And from that moment, those four years have been a story of redemption and coming back and with one goal, one purpose, to meet the moment, to have the greatest performance of his life at the most important moment of his life. He did that in a short program the other day, and then he really did it with his long program to a rocket man.

And Nathan Chen is the Olympic gold medalist in the men's competition, just a terrific performance for an artist and also one of the great jumpers, the quad king with those quadruple jumps, did five of them and was really in such command that there was no doubt that he was going to win the gold and how wonderful to see someone perform to that level especially after the four years ago that was such a heartbreaking scene. So, terrific day, and a wonderful legacy for now another Olympic gold medalist from the United States, Nathan Chen.

BOLDUAN: Absolutely. It's -- I mean, it's amazing how effortless he makes this -- like makes it all look when he's on the ice. OK, let's talk about this crazy situation right now with women's figure skating in the team competition. You broke the story that the medal ceremony was delayed over a positive drug test. What more are you learning now, Christine?

BRENNAN: The question is the medal ceremony, of course, was delayed, and it's still delayed. And there are so many groups, Kate, that are trying to figure out -- organizations, whether it's a doping agency, whether it's the International Skating Union that's running the sport of figure skating worldwide. You've also got, of course, the IOC that's running the actual medal

ceremony and the Court of Arbitration for sports standing by if there's an appeal or if they need to look into any kind of doping suspension. Anything could happen. Russia could keep the gold medal, you could see a scenario where there's sympathy for the 15-year-old Kamila Valieva, and the fact that that's who -- the minor that -- she's the only minor on the team.

So she's the one who has had the doping violation and the positive drug test. The adults in her life were, they a part of that. You could also see a scenario where Russia is disqualified. The United States was a silver medalist, they would move up to the gold, and then Japan and Canada. And what this story is doing as we continue on the man's with Nathan Chen, Ice stance, the women's competition, the pair's is really threatening to distract everyone from the competition on the ice as we look at Russia, again, Russia, Russia, Russia, the country that has all the doping problems and always gets in trouble. And here they are, again, front and center in another scandal.

BOLDUAN: When you put out something important, it's -- the competitions are still ongoing. So something's got to give in -- this has to be decided because isn't she set to skate again?

BRENNAN: Exactly. She is the gold medal favorite. Valieva is a gold medal favorite in the women's competition, hands down, JUST a beautiful skater and as I said, only 15. So the fact that she has tested positive is a bombshell in and of itself. Not only are you dealing with the team competition that already happened, and whether or not Russia would keep the gold, but also then you're dealing with her participation in that women's competition.

And as anyone who's watched figure skating knows, that's the marquee event. That's the event, Kate that gave us Peggy Fleming and Dorothy Hamill and Kristi Yamaguchi and Katarina Witt, and on and on it goes. So that's the one where everyone watches. The eyeballs and the ratings and will she compete or won't she? So a decision has to be made basically by early next week. And that's why it's -- well, it's confusing because it doesn't seem like anyone's moving towards a decision. And will that decision be appealed?

And who makes that decision, my guess would be she would then be able to compete if there's an appeal -- you know pending the appeal she would compete. So -- but everything's very much in a time crunch because of the fact that the games go on for another week in a few days and then they're over and that's the time period that we're looking at.

BOLDUAN: It's really remarkable. It's great to see you, Christine, thank you so much for staying up for us.

BRENNAN: You bet, Kate, thank you.

BOLDUAN: See you soon. There's also a development that we want to bring to you in the tragic death of comedian Bob Saget. His family is revealing that he died from head trauma. In a statement overnight, they say authorities concluded that he hit his head, went to sleep, and died. Saget was found unresponsive in a hotel room at the Ritz- Carlton in Orlando last month.

And his family wants everyone to remember though, how he lived and follow his lead. In their statement, they write this. Be kind to everyone, let people know you love them, and face difficult times with hugs and laughter. The Fuller House star was 65 years old. And thanks for being here, everybody. INSIDE POLITICS with John King starts after the break.

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