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At This Hour

Key U.S.-Canada Bridge Reopens After Protesters Removed; Official: U.S. Intel Assesses Russian Military Plans Include Surrounding Kyiv, Air And Missile Campaign; Whoopi Goldberg Returns From Suspension Over Holocaust Comments. Aired 11:30a-12p ET

Aired February 14, 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]

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KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Developing at this hour. For nearly a week, these were the scenes of gridlock on the Ambassador Bridge between the U.S. and Canada after anti-vaccine mandate protesters shut it down. And this is the scene this morning. Traffic finally moved again after police removed protesters who had been blocking it. CNN's Miguel Marquez is live in Windsor, Canada with the very latest. So Miguel, what brought this -- how did they wrap it up? What brought it to an end?

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it was a lot of patience and a lot of time that the police here in Windsor used to get those protesters to move a little bit, and then they waited for a very long period of time again overnight and then they went in and either arrested them or move the rest of them out early on Sunday.

It was all a bit of a drama leading up to it but the end kind of came with a whimper. It was about 30 individuals were arrested, about 12 cars were towed. But now police have the difficult duty of trying to keep this thoroughfare open. When you get onto the Canadian side it is surface streets until you get to the freeway. So there's a large police presence now to keep traffic flowing and to keep those protesters who say they want to come back from doing exactly that.

It's not the only protest, clearly. In Ottawa, there's a massive protest that has been going on for weeks or several other border crossings, not as big as this one that is also under protest right now and being shut down. So the Prime Minister is going to speak this afternoon, as we understand and the CBC reporting here in Canada that he may invoke the emergency acts here to help him deal with these numerous protests everywhere in Canada, back to you.

BOLDUAN: Miguel, it's great to have you. Thank you so much. Joining me right now for more on this is Democratic Congresswoman from Michigan, Debbie Dingell. Congresswoman, thank you for coming in. Seven days of protests, the Ambassador Bridge finally reopened overnight. What is the lasting impact of this?

REP. DEBBIE DINGELL, (D-MI): Well, the -- it's good to see you this morning, Kate. The fact of the matter is, is the impact of this is going to be felt by the companies for weeks to come. You can't replace lost workers' wages with the impact on inflation. But I do think what Miguel was just talking about is very real too, that both sides of the bridge, Canadians in particular are very worried about how to keep this flow of traffic open, not having people shut down the bridge again.

While the trucks were cleared, people think this was truckers but by Sunday, this was pedestrians. And it was late Saturday afternoon and people were actually using chill sprint to block that bridge. It -- this bridge is in a neighborhood. These bridges got strip malls and family homes and communities and it's very difficult -- it's difficult to keep it secure. And I -- the autos have talked to all (AUDIO GAP) the -- I talk to the autos. Traffic is flowing, things are starting to come in today but there's an apprehension that something could happen any second. So that ledge of that veil of anxiety is very much there as well.

BOLDUAN: Absolutely. And you know the ripple effects from this disruption in Canada were far-reaching and swift which surprised a lot of people you know from Michigan to Ohio to Kentucky and other places.

[11:35:00]

BOLDUAN: One person told me that when it comes to the auto industry, there's really no American auto industry and Canadian auto industry. It's really all one. What's the lesson then here because this might not be as you're suggesting the last protests like this that we see?

DINGELL: Well, it's something that we've really got to think about. Here's the -- I very flippantly said the other day, this is why we need to get our American supply chain back. And I said the next day, I shouldn't have been so flippant, they were Canadian plants that were down because they're getting parts from the American side.

I do think that both sides have to look at do we need a supply chain that is going to be dependent on borders that are this vulnerable? So we all have to talk about how we're going to keep our economy strong, our national security strong. We really need to look at who really did is at the foundation of this blockade, why are they doing that?

Quite frankly, I think they're people trying to divide us, trying to really attack the foundations of our democracy. Look at who the real people were. These weren't truckers, the Canadian truckers, the independent trucker Association, the Teamsters, were all opposed to this. Look at the public people in America that are supporting this, is this we -- every -- we've got a right to protest, we have freedom of speech.

Look, I can't tell you how many protests I've been in. But when does that right intrude upon people's security and the -- their daily income and their wages? And these are very delicate questions we've got to talk about.

BOLDUAN: Absolutely. It's good to see you, Congressman. Thank you.

DINGELL: Good to see you. Thank you. BOLDUAN: Thank you so much. Coming up for us, the Pentagon reacts to CNN reporting on what U.S. intelligence says the Russian military is planning if and when they attack Ukraine. We're going to bring it to you next.

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BOLDUAN: Developing at this hour. A senior official tells CNN U.S. intelligence indicates Russia is amassing more forces around Ukraine for possible military action this week. The U.S. now believes that Russian military action would begin with air and missile attacks and then they plan to surround Ukraine's capital city very quickly. The Pentagon's Press Secretary, reacting to this reporting just moments ago on the show.

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JOHN KIRBY, PENTAGON PRESS SECRETARY: If he wants to choose a very conventional large-scale military action in Ukraine that is certainly one way he could do that. I would also tell you, Kate, that we need to be on the lookout for other ways in which this incursion could start, it could start with a hybrid type of activity like we saw on the Donbas in 2015 with the so-called little green man, it could start with cyber-attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure and you know, utilities, and that kind of thing -- transportation.

So I mean, there are lots of different ways that Mr. Putin could do this. And we agree with Mr. Sullivan completely, that it could happen any day now. In fact, I think we all need to be prepared for the fact that it could happen with little to no warning.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: Joining me right now is CNN National Security Analyst David Sanger. He's a correspondent for New York Times, of course. And also with us, retired U.S. Army Major General Dana Pittard, he's the author of the book, Hunting The Caliphate. David, what do you make of what we just heard from John Kirby, when he was on earlier this hour about the possibilities here?

DAVID SANGER, CNN POLITICAL & NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Well, I think the first thing that I drew from that was he was saying they could do all the above, right? There's no reason given what the forces, that they've arrayed out there that they need to choose. I think if Putin's goal is really that he just wants to make sure he installs a friendly government in Ukraine, he might want to see if a combination of the cyber-attacks that Mr. Kirby mentioned, bringing down the power grid, and so forth.

And the threat of these actual physical invasions could collapse the government. And then he could step it up. It was interesting that the reporting indicates encircling Kyiv, they don't want to get we think into an urban guerrilla battle. And you know those don't work out well. They remember Afghanistan well. It's not even clear how long they would want to stay in Ukraine. But if they left, it's not clear the government they installed would be able to hold on.

BOLDUAN: So interesting. General, CNN's latest reporting is that this U.S. intelligence suggests the invasion would be air and missile attacks, as we've just been discussing, what do you think of this?

DANA PITTARD (RET.), U.S. ARMY: Good morning, Kate. In fact, I think that there's a lot of merit to that. I mean, they've got Russian forces around Ukraine on really three sides. It depends on what the overall objective is. If it's to take a portion of the country in the east, then I see that.

However, what it could also be like the forces that are arrayed to the east could in fact be a holding force. The same thing with the naval forces in the south could be -- could be there to hold Ukrainian forces in place, when in fact, the objective could in fact be the capital Kyiv. So they have a couple of options there.

Again, I think it's going to be a huge strategic blunder to attack Ukraine but it appears that that's probably going to happen if the unconfirmed reports that -- from Russian state media are correct, that the Russian Embassy in Kyiv is evacuating personnel, it looks like it will happen sooner rather than later.

[11:45:00]

BOLDUAN: And another element of this, David is Jake Sullivan was asked over the weekend about the Biden administration's allegation that the Russians could be using a false flag attack in order to give justification if you will, to invade Ukraine. And also -- but Sullivan was also asked about not offering up more evidence of this intelligence. Let me play what he said.

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JAKE SULLIVAN, NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: We're not putting forward this intelligence to start a war, which has happened in the past, Jake. We are putting forward this intelligence to stop a war. And I think that fundamentally gives it at the outset a different level of credibility.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: I thought that was really interesting because they've been facing questions on this for like a week now. What do you think of that?

SANGER: Well, what he was saying is, this isn't Iraq.

BOLDUAN: OK.

SANGER: We're not trying to create a premise for U.S. forces doing anything. And in fact, the President has said U.S. forces aren't going to be in this, even if the Russians do invade, not even do rescue American citizens. That said, you can only expose Russian disinformation and proposed activities so many times before the Russians come back and say we said we were going to do x, and we didn't do it.

And so you know, you're making this up. And you've heard the Russian Foreign Ministry tried to do this over the weekend. I think they're on pretty solid ground but I also think at some point, they're going to have to show their homework and explain why it is that they say these things are going to happen.

BOLDUAN: That's a good point. I'm going to put up two maps really quickly, General on top, everyone kind of understands what this threat looks like right now over here. Here's a helpful map showing how Russian forces have been building up on all -- on three sides of Ukraine, to the south to the east, and to the north and Belarus.

And then there's also this map that we've put together to show, like the most recent movements. You got Russian military exercises in Belarus in the north. We got six Russian assault ships moved into the south, that's according to the Russian Defense Ministry, on top of the 100,000 Russian troops that we've been told and been moved into place. Where do you expect -- would you expect to see movement first?

PITTARD: I would see -- I would expect to see movement again, depending on the objective. If the objective is Kyiv, I would expect to see movement in the East initially, again, to hold Ukrainian forces in place so that they don't move to reinforce the capital. And or movement in the south from the Naval -- from the Naval side, again, to keep Ukrainian forces in place.

As what's been mentioned earlier, it may start with a cyber-attack, followed by guerrilla-type forces maybe, and then we may see artillery moving up, we then will see air defense elements to make sure that their ground forces have an easy way through. So it depends on what the objective is, but I would expect to see the initial forces moving -- the Russian forces moving in the east of Ukraine.

BOLDUAN: General, it's always great to have you. Thank you so much. David, thank you for being here, it's good to see you.

SANGER: Thank you.

PITTARD: Thank you.

BOLDUAN: Coming up for us, Whoopi Goldberg returns to the view after being suspended over her comments about the Holocaust, what does she say about the controversy today? That's next.

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[11:50:00]

BOLDUAN: Trending this morning. Whoopi Goldberg returned to The View today after a two-week suspension over controversial comments that she made about the Holocaust. Here's what she said just moments ago.

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WHOOPI GOLDBERG, HOST, THE VIEW: I listened to everything everybody had to say and I was very grateful. And I hope it keeps all the important conversations happening because we're going to keep having tough conversations. And in part, because this is what we've been hired to do.

And it's not always pretty, as I said, and it's not always as other people would like to hear. But it is an honor to sit at this table and be able to have these conversations because they're important. They're important to us as a nation and to us more so as a human entity.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: CNN's Brian Stelter joining me now with more on this. What else did she say? What did you think of this return?

BRIAN STELTER, CNN ANCHOR: Notably, she didn't say anything specifically about her suspension or why she was suspended in the first place.

BOLDUAN: OK.

STELTER: The context for this was the conversation about Maus, the comic about the Holocaust that was banned by that Tennessee School District. To me, that is the bigger scandal here because that is continuing to happen in different parts of this country. And Whoopi was having a conversation about Maus and in that context, said that the Holocaust was not about race. She then -- as you know she apologized. She seemed sincere in the apology.

So even though there was a lot of energy inside ABC saying, what are you going to do about Whoopi? As soon as she was suspended, there was all this external energy, all members of the public saying this seems extreme, why is she suspended for two weeks? So now she's back. She didn't explicitly acknowledge why she was off in the first place.

But I think the key is the end there, the last thing she said. We're going to keep having these tough conversations. Maybe it's just my Valentine's Day spirit, Kate, but it feels to me like we should be having -- we should -- we have openness to having tough conversations, especially on talk shows.

BOLDUAN: Well it also speaks to, we're talking about the slip break, what seems to be a different standard of the application of what can get you suspended, what can get you canceled --

STELTER: Right.

BOLDUAN: And how do different networks and shows handle it?

STELTER: Depending on the place, depending on the organization, depending on the boss, depending on the year --

BOLDUAN: Yes.

STELTER: -- Years ago, a lot of controversy about Colin Kaepernick kneeling.

[11:55:00]

STELTER: Then last night in the Super Bowl, Eminem very visibly kneels. I e-mailed the NFL spokesman, he said, any comment, any controversy is that something you expected. He said yes, we knew this, he did this in rehearsal, we don't mind. Anyone is allowed to kneel. Seem to me like, now look, the NFL took a long windy road to get to that right answer. But --

BOLDUAN: Yes. You give of getting there.

STELTER: To get to that right answer. But when companies get to the right answer, I think they should be recognized. With Whoopi, maybe this was the wrong answer by ABC, but now she's back.

BOLDUAN: So interesting. Good to see you.

STELTER: You too, thanks.

BOLDUAN: Thanks for being here.

STELTER: Happy Valentine's.

BOLDUAN: To you, as well. Thank you all so much for being here. I'm Kate Bolduan. INSIDE POLITICS with John King starts after this break.

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