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Prince Andrew Settles Lawsuit With Epstein Accuser Virginia Giuffre; NATO: No Signs Of Russian De-Escalation On The Ground; FDA Postpones Review Of Pfizer Data On Vaccine For Kids Under 5. Aired 11:30a-12p ET

Aired February 15, 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: A mass shooting in America. CNN's Erica Hill is live, is there, she joins us now. Erica, what are you hearing from the families about this and what does this settlement mean?

ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR & NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: This is -- this is a really big deal, Kate. As you pointed out, this is the first time a gun company has been held legally accountable. There are two parts to this settlement. There is that massive number, $73 million. Remington is now in bankruptcy so the four insurance companies that own and control that former gun company are each paying out the maximum benefit for those policies for that company.

So, $73 million for these families, families of nine of the victims, the other part of this that is really key, though, is that they also have now obtained access to a number of internal documents. And, Kate they have the right to make those documents public. You may recall this was first filed -- this lawsuit was first filed in 2014 and at a time, brilliant legal mindset, this is really a tough road to go down. No gun company has ever been held responsible. But they continued on that road.

There were a lot of hurdles. Here we are today. A settlement was offered by Remington for $33 million back in July and at the time, the lead attorney for these nine families Josh Koskoff said, look, we're not settling anything until we know that we're getting everything that we asked for. And part of what they wanted, Kate are those documents because they believe that those internal documents would tell a very important story about how these weapons, that were being marketed, to whom and why and what that said about the company. So this is what we're hearing right now.

As you mentioned, the press conference is ongoing. I just stopped -- popped out to talk to you. And right now with the -- with the attorneys we're doing is they're reminding us about each of these nine lives that were taken on that day, in 2012, December 14 in Sandy Hook at the elementary school, and the attorney just choking up a moment ago as he was walking through what these folks were doing on that morning. Rachel D'Avino, what was -- what she was doing, what her goals were, what she wanted to do?

And as we're learning more about that, we're going to hear shortly from the families. We do know though real quickly, they have said in a press release, this is not redemption, this is not restorative, this does not bring their loved ones back but it is an important step in the right direction. And they see this is about right and wrong, Kate.

BOLDUAN: Erica, thank you so much. Thanks for being there. Thanks for bringing this to us. Also following some more breaking news I want to get to. Prince Andrew has reached a financial settlement in the sexual assault lawsuit brought against him by Virginia Giuffre. This, according to a new court filing. Let's get over to CNN's Max Foster. He's live near London with the breaking details. Max, what are the details of this settlement?

MAX FOSTER, CNN ROYAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's a settlement -- is a statement that's been filed at the court, I can read it to you. Prince Andrew was due to give a deposition in this case. He's not accepting any of the charges against him but they have reached some sort of agreement here. So it says that the parties will file a stipulated dismissal upon Miss Giuffre's receipt of the settlement. We don't know how much the figure is.

Prince Andrew intends to make a substantial donation to Miss Giuffre's charity in support of victims' rights. Prince Andrew is never intended to malign Miss Giuffre's character and accepts that she has suffered both as an established victim of abuse and as a result of unfair public attacks.

It's known that Jeffrey Epstein trafficked countless young girls over many years, Giuffre says she was one of them. Prince Andrew regrets his association with Epstein and commends the bravery of Miss Giuffre and other survivors and standing up for themselves and others.

He pledges to demonstrate his regrets for his association with Epstein by supporting the fight against the evils of sex trafficking and by supporting its victims.

BOLDUAN: A big settlement there as well. Max thanks so much for the reporting. Coming up for us still, NATO allies are rallying behind Ukraine in a big way facing the growing threat of an invasion by Russia. Putin now says that he can see NATO forces at his doorstep. We'll discuss next

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[11:35:00]

BOLDUAN: Back to our top story now and a nation on the brink of war. NATO Secretary-General is seeing no signs that Russia is making any moves today to de-escalate its massive military buildup on Ukraine's border despite Russian claims that it's doing just that. NATO in the West pledging unity in the face of this threat and in doing so, giving President Putin the exact opposite of one of his main strategic goals. Instead of pushing NATO and the U.S. further from its borders, they are now even closer.

Join me now for more on this, a former CIA chief of Russia operations, Steve Hall, and also with us is retired brigadier general Mark Kimmitt, Assistant Secretary of State for Political military affairs under President George W. Bush. Gentlemen, thank you for being here.

General, I think -- I think there's no question that if Russia wants a military victory, it can achieve it in Ukraine. The question then becomes, I guess, at what cost? What do you think?

MARK KIMMITT (RET.), U.S. ARMY: Yes, that's a good question, Kate. It will be much like Afghanistan in 79 or as some people would say, it'd be the dog catching the school bus. What do they do with it at that point? Be extraordinary expensive, they'd be fighting an insurgency against Ukrainian forces.

[11:40:00]

KIMMITT: And candidly, if you take a look at the polls coming out inside of Russia right now, there is no appetite for war. So I continue to believe that this is simply a bluff on the part of the Russian leader to achieve with these threats, his real goals, which is to throw a splinter into NATO, to get Ukraine to agree never to join NATO and to also push back some of those ballistic missiles that are being stationed in places such as Romania and Poland.

BOLDUAN: And Steve, on the question of what is a win and what is a loss? I was interested when I saw Senator Chris Murphy arguing in a Twitter thread this and part saying, it's maddening watching Putin hold these cards. It feels -- it feels like he's in charge holding us all hostage. But, Senator Murphy says, but not really. He's operating from a position of severe weakness. Having failed to coax Ukraine back into his orbit, a potentially disastrous invasion is his last resort.

I get the sense U.S. officials believe Putin has played a bad hand throughout. So is it a binary choice, if Putin moves in he wins, if Putin doesn't move in the West wins?

STEVE HALL, FORMER CIA CHIEF OF RUSSIA OPERATION: No, Kate, I think it's anything but binary. But I would agree with those -- with those expressions of sort of frustration on Twitter. You know, sometimes it appears that Putin holds a lot of cards. That's because he knows that is a waning power, he's simply going to look for difficult areas, difficult things that only Russia can be the solution to. It sorts of one of the -- one of the hallmarks of their tradecraft, and their -- and their -- and their policies, their entire geopolitical policies.

With regard to Ukraine, I think he is indeed surprised at the unity that he was hoping wasn't there amongst the Western Allies and partners. And I think he got himself into this situation thinking, OK, well, I'm going to be able to essentially do whatever I want, invade or not. And it turns out that the unity is much greater than he thought. But one interesting thing caught my eye today was the news that the

Duma, which is sort of the Russian equivalent of our Congress, except they're a rubber stamp, they do whatever Putin says, recommended that the -- those areas in the Donbas region, Luhansk, and Donetsk, which is -- which is where Russian supported separatists are working, that they'd be recognized as actual countries which is the exact same thing he did in Georgia, recognizing two sorts of breakaway regions in Georgia.

And that's an indication to me that he hopes to turn all this into sort of a frozen conflict. He knows that NATO doesn't like to admit members that have difficulties on their borders. And creating that difficulty is yet another way, although not the optimum way, I think, for him to make it that much more difficult for Ukraine ever to get into NATO.

BOLDUAN: It is so interesting. And, General, you know Sam Kiley raised at the top of the hour when he's in eastern Ukraine. He talked about this squeezing effect that they're seeing with Russian forces, kind of all on three sides of Ukraine and that's what's happening right now. What do you think, then of what -- of what Steve's talking about here? If this heads to a frozen conflict, what does it mean?

KIMMITT: Well, first of all, the Russians can't keep those forces out in the field for very long, probably a couple of months at the absolute max. It's extraordinarily expensive to keep them out there. And candidly, watching what happened on oil prices today, to follow them is going to cost him a lot of money as well.

But we shouldn't rest on our laurels and think we've won this. The EU ambassador said look if something happens, if some of the separatist forces are killed, we will reserve the right to go in. And candidly, I think that the separatists themselves may want to cause a little mischief in order to perhaps get the Russians in but it probably will end up as Steve says that some sort of frozen conflict.

But let's not kid ourselves. Putin still has significant capability and he probably will shake his sword a few more times as we're going through these further negotiations and diplomatic phase.

BOLDUAN: Steve, I remember one thing you mentioned last time we spoke as you are watching closely to see what happened after the Russian military exercises with Belarus wrapped up. They're still ongoing, but Russia today says that some troops are moving back to their bases. But the NATO Secretary-General doesn't seem to believe it. What would you want to see -- your need to see to believe that Russia is making any real moves to back off?

HALL: Well, there has to be a couple of different things. First and foremost and most obvious, I think, is there has to be a significant lessening of the amount of troops that we're seeing surrounding Ukraine at this point, whether it's Belarus or whether it's on the eastern flank and near the Donbas region or further south or even some of the troops that are stationed -- that are stationed a little bit to the West in the Moldovan region. So we have to keep a very close eye on those troops. [11:45:00]

HALL: Unfortunately, that's something the U.S. intelligence as well as our allies can do. But as we were alluding to earlier, there's a lot of other -- there's a lot of arrows left in Putin's quiver. You know, he can essentially, again, if he -- if he starts this frozen conflict thing, that immediately lies -- lays at the doorstep of NATO and the United States, OK, we're saying it's the separatists but we all know, it's Russian controlled separatists.

So, if they take up arms in a stronger fashion, does that represent then some sort of further incursion into Ukraine, which, of course, President Biden and others have said any incursion into Ukraine will result in these super sanctions, and perhaps the closing of Nord Stream 2?

So, there's a lot of subtlety involved here, and I think what we're going to see Putin do is pretty much what he always does, which is, see how far he can get, see what he can get away with, to maximize the likelihood that he's going to get what he wants and minimize the response that he gets out of NATO in the West.

BOLDUAN: Steve, good to see you. As always, thank you. General, thank you for being here.

Coming up for us, kids under five will need to wait even longer now to get vaccinated after the FDA postpones a critical meeting today. We'll look at what's behind the delay and also what's the next step -- what is the next step now?

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[11:50:00]

BOLDUAN: Turning to the latest on the pandemic now. Today was slated as the day the FDA's Vaccine Advisory Panel would meet to review Pfizer's vaccine data for the last and final group, children under the age of five. That meeting, however, pushback citing the need for more data from the ongoing clinical trials, Dr. Anthony Fauci telling CNN this is simply a delay, not a setback.

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DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, WHITE HOUSE CHIEF MEDICAL ADVISER: I think it's disappointing that parents who have children in that age group certainly are anxious and want their children to be vaccinated but you want to make sure it's done right. And what the FDA is doing is there doesn't appear to be any safety issue at all. They want to make sure that the dose regimen that will be used is the correct one.

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BOLDUAN: Joining me now for more on this is Dr. Edith Bracho-Sanchez. She is a pediatrician at Columbia University's Irving Medical Center. It's great to have you here live and in living color. Thanks for coming in. So Dr. Fauci made clear he does not think this is a major setback. That may and is clearly true, according to science. But for parents who are feeling this with kids under five, it doesn't feel that way. What do parents -- people -- parents need to know about these trials, about the delay, and about what happens next?

DR. EDITH BRACHO-SANCHEZ, PRIMARY CARE PEDIATRICIAN, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY, IRVING MEDICAL CENTER: Kate, I am one of those parents, I understand the frustration, this has been a long time coming and we were so close. And I thought the conversation we were going to have today was going to be different. I think it's important for people at home to know that science takes as long as it takes, and that you want the steps to be followed.

You want enough data to be accumulated, you want all of the data to be accumulated and you want the experts who are making recommendations on these vaccines to have been able, to have the time to look at all of the data. And that is what's happening here. More data is coming. The experts are taking the time to really review it and tell us yes or no.

BOLDUAN: The youngest group that is approved to get the shot right now from the five -- the five to 11-year-olds, the vaccine rate amongst these kids is still stubbornly low. We look this morning for two doses it's 23.9 percent in that in that group. I'm wondering, as a pediatrician, what message you have found that works, or what really is not working in talking to kids, talking to their parents to convince them to get a shot? It will apply when this next group gets the green light as well.

BRACHO-SANCHEZ: That's exactly right. What I'm seeing in my office, Kate is that parents are saying, why would I do this? This is a mild illness in children. And I think unfortunately, that idea took roots and it's been so hard to tell parents, listen, this is a lottery you're playing each time. Your child is vulnerable every day that they're not vaccinated.

What I have found works is to say I understand you're thinking about this. Let's put a deadline on it. Let's think about it for two weeks. What information do you need to gather in the next two weeks? And let's set a follow-up, right? Let's set up another visit to talk about this again and you can ask me any additional questions that have come up. But the sort of way, way, way, I'm not sure. And that just sort of, you know, lingers. It's not -- it's not really the way to go.

BOLDUAN: The deadline, that's interesting. I hadn't heard about that, like setting a deadline to follow up is a great idea. State officials, in general, are citing the falling case counts as the reason for pulling back restrictions, lifting mask mandates, and the like. But when you look at it, vaccination rates in the United States are falling at the very same time. We just looked at the new vaccine rate -- new vaccine doses fell 57 percent in the last month, and new booster doses are down 65 percent. And I'm wondering, that all adds up to what at this moment do you think?

BRACHO-SANCHEZ: I just -- you know, I think it's leaving us in a really bad place. I think we are heading into those things --

BOLDUAN: It's like -- it's like good news and bad news at the same time, right? Like we love seeing cases plummet, but then there's the but.

BRACHO-SANCHEZ: And we're threading this needle light of trying to give people hope of saying yes, the Omicron variant did turn out to be a little more mild, there's no guarantee that the next variant that might come after it is going to be just as mild to braid and we sort of want to give people hope but at the same time, we need to be careful. And every time, Kate, here and every other country around the world that we let our guard down, we see the numbers come back up and new variants emerge. It's just the reality of this virus.

BOLDUAN: Well, and the World Health Organization has been speaking to that just warning that low vaccination coverage and low testing rates in other countries are creating, to your point, ideal conditions for a new variant to emerge. It's kind of like we've seen -- we've seen this before. We've seen this movie before.

[11:55:00]

BRACHO-SANCHEZ: We have. And you think we wouldn't learn but I think we as humans being -- as human beings get tired, get you know a little --

BOLDUAN: The exhaustion is real.

BRACHO-SANCHEZ: That's exactly right. That's exactly right. And we're humans, we need the connection but I think there are ways to go about this. We can set goals, we can set, you know, collective things that we're hoping for before we ease restrictions, and it is the harder message, Kate. I know that. It is a harder message to sell for politicians, but I believe it is the right message.

BOLDUAN: You know that's -- if you're a leader, it's your job to lead. So you have that. It's good to see you, Doctor. Thanks for coming in.

BRACHO-SANCHEZ: Of course.

BOLDUAN: And thank you all so much for joining us today AT THIS HOUR. I'm Kate Bolduan. INSIDE POLITICS with John King starts after the break.

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