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The Lead with Jake Tapper
Biden Touts Economy, Infrastructure as Russia Tensions Build; Interview with Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-NY); COVID Cases and Hospitalizations Declining, Deaths Still Alarmingly High; Widow of Officer Rivera Recounts Day of Shooting in Emotional Eulogy; Biden on Crumbling Bridges: "We're Going to Fix Them All"; Nor'easter Bring Heavy Snow, Hurricane Strength Winds to Northeast; Avenatti Cross- Examines Stormy Daniels for Four Hours in Own Trial. Aired 4-5p ET
Aired January 28, 2022 - 16:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[16:00:04]
ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN HOST: She later apologized for that but I guess baby dog does not accept that apology. That's what I thought.
VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN HOST: Can you imagine what baby dog is thinking with this room full of people applauding, the back end, the business end, as it's known, of the bulldog?
CAMEROTA: I don't want to think about it.
BLACKWELL: Thank you, Governor Justice.
THE LEAD WITH JAKE TAPPER starts right now.
JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: America's top general just painted a rather scary picture.
THE LEAD starts right now.
The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff says if Russia invades Ukraine, it will be, quote, horrific. The House Foreign Affairs Committee chairman is in Kyiv, Ukraine, and joins us after his meeting with Ukraine's president.
Plus, a 22-year-old widow, distraught as she says goodbye to her husband, a New York City cop killed in the line of duty.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DOMINIQUE LUZURIAGA, WIDOW OF NYPD OFFICER JASON RIVERA: Today, I'm still in this nightmare that I wish I never had, full of rage, and anger, hurt and sad, torn.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: That woman is pointing the finger of blame at one person who was at today's funeral.
Then it's a miracle no one was seriously hurt. Questions and alarm today about what caused a major bridge to collapse in the city of bridges.
(MUSIC)
TAPPER: Welcome to THE LEAD. I'm Jake Tapper.
We start our politics lead, today, moments ago, President Biden wrapped up a speech in Pittsburgh promoting what he sees is his administration's major accomplishments, such as the strength of the nation's economic growth, his bipartisan infrastructure deal. But a crisis overseas is consuming a great deal of the president's attention. The Biden administration insisting a Ukraine invasion by Russia is imminent, warning today that an invasion would be horrific.
U.S. ambassador to Russia, John Sullivan, today calling Moscow's troop build-up along Ukraine's border extraordinary, adding that this gives Vladimir Putin the ability to invade with no notice.
Democratic Congressman Gregory Meeks is in Ukraine right now leading a congressional delegation with the House Foreign Affairs Committee that he chairs, and he will join me in a moment in his first TV interview since his meeting today with the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky.
But, first, CNN's Kaitlan Collins will tell us about the tensions on the world stage.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): President Biden driving home his infrastructure message in Pittsburgh with an extraordinary backdrop.
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It's incredible.
COLLINS: Hours before Biden arrived, at least ten people were injured when a 52-year-old bridge suddenly collapsed, sending cars plunging but fortunately causing no deaths.
POLICE OFFICER: It's just a very loud like jet engine --
BIDEN: You see it is coming out on the other side of the concrete there.
COLLINS: With year two of his presidency underway, President Biden is pledging to fix dilapidated bridges nationwide.
BIDEN: They're going to fix them all. Not a joke. This is going to be a gigantic change.
COLLINS: But tensions building overseas are threatening on overshadow his efforts.
LLOYD AUSTIN, DEFENSE SECRETARY: I don't think this is about trusting Putin. This is about our allies trusting us.
COLLINS: Top brass at the pentagon warning about the horrific outcome if Russian President Putin invades Ukraine.
GEN. MARK MILLEY, JOINT CHIEFS CHAIRMAN: The Russian Federation has amassed upwards at this time of over 100,000 ground forces, air forces, naval forces, special forces, cyber, electronic warfare, command and control, logistics, engineers, and other capabilities along the Ukraine border.
COLLINS: But the Ukrainian president who spent over an hour on the phone with Biden yesterday is pumping the brakes on the talk of war.
PRES. VOLODYMYR ZELENSKY, UKRAINE: I'm the president of Ukraine. I'm based here and I think I know the details deeper than any other president.
COLLINS: While the Ukrainian leader noted that Russia has used military build-ups as a scare tactic in the past, the Pentagon says this is different.
MILLEY: This is larger in scale and scope and the massing of forces than anything we've seen in recent memory and I think you would have to go back quite a while into the Cold War days to see something of this magnitude.
COLLINS: Still, officials are hoping for a diplomatic path ahead.
AUSTIN: Conflict is not inevitable.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COLLINS: And, Jake, they were hopeful about diplomacy being the path forward but you heard the officials at the Pentagon today also being realistic about what is happening on the ground in Ukraine and talking about the weather conditions changing. As it gets colder, the waters freeze. It is a lot easier for those tanks to move in potentially into Ukraine. And so, right now, you heard Defense Secretary Austin say the 8,500 troops that President Biden has put on high alert to potentially move them into Eastern Europe if needed. He said, so far, they have not moved but, of course, they are on high alert and ready to do so if needed.
TAPPER: All right. Kaitlan Collins at the White House, thanks so much.
Joining me now, House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Gregory Meeks of New York, who is leading a congressional delegation in Ukraine and joins us from Kyiv.
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Mr. Chairman, you just met with the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky. What was the main message you think he's trying to convey right now?
REP. GREGORY MEEKS (D-NY): Well, that we're all together. I think that he is conveying the fact that the unity that is developed between the United States and quite frankly, European Union friends and those that are part of NATO, that we've got to all be together to stop the aggression of Vladimir Putin.
And he's talking in a sense of being very appreciative, actually, of the $850 million that the United States has already given to Ukraine and other things and other needs that they have as we make sure that we have a plan A and a plan B because we don't know what Putin is going to do. We don't know if Putin knows what he's going to do.
TAPPER: In a press conference not long ago, President Zelensky called it a mistake for the U.S. to pull out nonessential staff from the embassies in Ukraine. He compared them to ship captains, saying they should be the last to leave the ship.
What do you make of that and what do you make of him downplaying the imminence of an invasion by Russia?
MEEKS: Well, what we told him and I think that he understood, that the embassy is still fully employed. You know, that the members of the embassy are there. Their family members and dependents are the ones that are leaving. But the embassy is fully -- is full of individuals that are there preparing and working on an everyday basis.
I know what he's concerned about is that, to make sure that there is no sense of panic and/or individuals, you know, think they cannot go about their lives here in Ukraine. Now, that would be a victory for Putin because it would slow and stop their economy.
And I can tell you, from being in Ukraine, for the days that I've been here, they are going about their daily lives. Their economy is still moving forward.
But they also know that there may come a time if Putin crosses that line that they will have to stand up and defend their country. And I walk, when I leave here, I will leave with the confidence that they will just do that, because the Ukrainian people that I've spoken with, and we spoke to some here that come from different parts of the country, they are resolved to protect their democracy.
TAPPER: Today, the Pentagon laid out some of the resources Russia has at the border. Take a listen to General Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MILLEY: A hundred thousand troops and you've got combined arms formations, ground maneuver, artillery, rockets. You got air, and all the other piece parts that go with it. There is a potential that they could launch on very, very little warning. That's possible.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: Yet, Putin's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said today that if it's up to Russia, quote, there will be no war. Do you believe Lavrov?
MEEKS: No, we can't sit back and just believe him. You know, we've got -- you know, as the president has said for weeks now, for a month now, there is a distinct possibility of Russia attacking sometime in February. So, we don't want him to attack. We've put up things to make sure that pushes him away from attacking.
But should he attack, we have to be ready because we see where the aggression has come in the region. It's not NATO. It's not those individuals in Ukraine. It's not the E.U.
The aggressors is coming from Russia.
TAPPER: Right.
MEEKS: So you've got to prepare.
If they move those tanks away, it's a different story. But as long as those tanks are there, we have to be prepared to deal with them. Or the Ukrainians will be prepared to deal with them, I should say.
TAPPER: You were in Congress. You alluded just a second ago, to 2014, when Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine. You're in Congress when that happened.
Also, when Putin annexed part of Georgia during the George W. Bush years, both Bush and Obama responded with sanctions on Russia, sanctions that don't seem to have stopped Putin's ambitions at all.
Are you confident that the sanctions that President Biden is threatening would actually work?
MEEKS: Yeah. You're talking about crippling sanctions. What the key here, Jake, is not just the United States. That's why we've got to keep the unity among all of our allies in the area.
So what we did on this trip, we stopped in Brussels first, because I wanted to hear from the members of NATO where they were, where they stood. I wanted to hear from the members of the E.U., where they stood.
And I also wanted to hear from our European allies, some from the Baltics who are very close to the Russian border. I wanted to hear them. It's the division we have between what we call the call four (ph), which is Germany, France, as the lead, as well as what we call the B-9 (ph).
And what I'm finding is, here's where I think President Biden is doing a great job, bringing them all together, listening to them, you know, because basically, what they were saying is, it's good that America is back at the table and we're working together and listening to each and all of them so that we can stay together and then if in fact sanctions have to be implemented, it will be done collectively and severely like never before, because of the multilateralism of the sanctions.
TAPPER: House Foreign Affairs Committee chairman, Democratic Congressman Gregory Meeks, coming to us from Kyiv, Ukraine -- thank you so much, sir.
From Maryland to Maine, a blizzard is setting up to hit the Northeast this weekend. Some areas could see up to three feet of snow. Then, that escalated quickly in court. Former porn star Stormy Daniels
cross-examined by Michael Avenatti, her former lawyer, who she says stole from her.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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TAPPER: In our health lead, more than 2,200 Americans are dying every day from COVID, according to Johns Hopkins University. But daily cases and hospitalizations of Americans are dropping which is a shot of hope echoed by Dr. Anthony Fauci.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: I'm cautiously optimistic that things are going in the right direction.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: Here's another possible shot at hope after a stagnant spell, vaccinations seem to be kicking back up, now 77 percent of Americans have at least one dose.
But as CNN's Alexandra Field reports for us now, an omicron spinoff variant is catching the eye of scientists.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
FAUCI: My message would be just hang in there.
ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Easier that than done for many Americans, but as exhaustion with the pandemic grows, so do signs of hope. Omicron cases coming down in much of the country and promisingly, new data shows vaccination numbers are going up a bit during the omicron surge.
A new Kaiser Family Foundation study finds 77 percent of Americans have received at least one dose of a COVID vaccine, compared to 73 percent in November when vaccination rates had stagnated. And more proof of how well vaccines work, according to the CDC, unvaccinated seniors were 52 times more likely to be hospitalized with COVID in December than seniors who were fully vaccinate and boosted.
DR. ASHISH JHA, DEAN, BROWN UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH: Let's keep working on improving therapeutics and vaccines and make sure there's plenty of them so whenever the next variant hits, we'll be ready, we won't have to shut down schools, we won't have to shut down our lives. We'll manage our way through it.
FIELD: There's now a sub-variant of omicron, but public health officials say it's not yet cause for alarm.
FAUCI: We're keeping a close eye on it. It looks a bit more transmissible but not necessarily more severe. FIELD: Sadly, some 2,200 Americans are still losing their lives to
COVID daily. Thankfully, hospitalizations are lower than they were a week ago, but it remains an isolating disease. To counter that pain in Oklahoma, a lawmaker is calling for a new law to ensure COVID patients can receive visits from loved ones, saying many Oklahomans have had to endure the horrible heartbreak of not being with loved ones while they were hospitalized with COVID-19.
This adds stress and trauma on to an already fraught situation. The stresses of the pandemic not behind us yet. Children under 5 still aren't eligible for vaccines and COVID cases among children are hitting new highs, the rate of infection nearly five times higher than at the peak of the surge last winter. But in another sign of hope, two new Israeli studies show children living in vaccinated households have significantly higher protection.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FIELD: And even so, more than 2 million children have been infected with COVID just this month, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics, which is saying schools should stay open for in-person learning but they're also saying that students and staff should continue to wear masks -- Jake.
TAPPER: Alexandra Field, thanks so much.
Let's bring in CNN's chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta.
Sanjay, if we look at the delta wave from last summer and early fall, cases started coming down in September with a downward trend in deaths in late September. So, now that cases from the omicron surge are clearly plummeting, cases, does that mean we should expect deaths to finally start decreasing in maybe two weeks?
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah. I think two to three weeks. If you look at the previous waves that there's been that sort of lag period, and you are already seeing it in some places, like some of the earliest places, for example, in New York, you are starting to see deaths come down in addition to cases and hospitalizations. So that's potentially good news.
And that is sort of, you know, the expectation. But let me just show you the CDC model on this. These are the models, right? The ensemble models that we've been talking about for sometime. But they basically, you know, show what's been happening with weekly death rates, and then you get into the red zone.
And it's a pretty wide sort of spectrum of possibilities there. But if you look at other countries, you look at what's happening already in the United States, there is a very significant chance that mid third week of February sort of time frame, deaths should be heading downward.
TAPPER: Sanjay, talk to us about this new version of the omicron variant. It's called BA.2. It's been detected in Denmark. It seems to have caused a drawn out omicron spike there. But scientists here say it's not necessarily cause for alarm. Why not?
[16:20:02]
GUPTA: Well, because the immunity that you get from vaccines and even to some extent from natural immunity still seems to be protective against this lineage. That's the bottom line. It's not different enough to be worried. You get worried when something is so different that you worry that your existing immunity may not have as much effect.
I don't know if we have the graphic, but you can see that this particular lineage, BA.2, as you mentioned, is -- there's actually three lineages. There's the original, which is the lighter gray, and then another lineage, which is BA.1.1, and now BA.2.
It's a smaller percentage, but it's been found in a lot of countries, including the United States. But I think that the reason that people aren't too worried about it, unlike when omicron first hit the scene, hit 50 different mutations. This is pretty similar to what they see circulating.
TAPPER: So tell us about these new studies that could help children under 5 protect their unvaccinated kids. There are still no approved vaccinations for kids under 5. Tell us more about these studies.
GUPTA: Well, this really is a demonstration of herd immunity, the thing that we're talking about, but more herd immunity sort of more on a household sort of scale. The question that these researchers had is, okay, there are people in this case, children who are 5 who cannot get vaccinated. What is the best way to protect them?
You obviously, you know, talk about all the other things that we've talked about. But if you have people in the household that are vaccinated, how many of a difference does it make? What they found is it still makes a considerable difference, even with omicron as contagious as it is.
Back when they did this, we can look at when they looked at alpha, for example. If you had both parents in the household vaccinated, you had protection of close to mid 70 percent. Omicron is more contagious so it is no surprise that the effectiveness goes down.
But one parent vaccinated gives you sort of 20 percent protection for your unvaccinated kid against them getting infected. And it goes up considerably with both parents. It's not perfect. But this is the whole concept of herd immunity. And we know they can't be vaccinated and these kids can't wear, you know, like masks like N95 masks, so this is another tool to trying to protect them.
TAPPER: Finally, I want to you talk about this dangerous lie that we keep hearing about the COVID vaccine. We first heard it from NBA legend John Stockton. And here's Wisconsin Republican Senator Ron Johnson.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) SEN. RON JOHNSON (R-WI): We've heard story after story, all these athletes dropping dead on the field. But we're supposed to ignore that. Nothing happening here. Nothing to see. This is a travesty. This is a scandal.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: All these athletes dropping dead on the field, supposedly due to the vaccine. Now, CNN reached out to Johnson's office which clarified that the senator didn't say they dropped dead because of the COVID vaccine, or from COVID, instead, from possible adverse reactions to the COVID vaccine. He's calling for transparency.
Clear this up for us. Is there any evidence of people dropping dead from the COVID vaccine? Especially what we've heard from Stockton and Senator Johnson, of all these athletes dropping dead from the COVID vaccine?
GUPTA: No. There's not. Frankly, I read his statements. I heard the comments and I'm still not sure how he reconciles what he said, and then he said, well, I'm not saying what I just said.
Unfortunately, you know, there is a lot of data out there about these 19 athletes, okay? It showed up on this one website Gateway Pundit. Initially, that seems to be where this started and these 19 athletes.
Subsequently, people have gone and checked into these 19 athletes. Was there a problem? Was there a connection?
What they found, not in any days was there a causal relationship between vaccine and these people having some sort of heart arrhythmia or something like that. Denmark's Christian Eriksen, he was one of the 19. He hadn't even vaccinated. And right away, there was all this concern that the vaccine had caused this problem.
It's not connected. There's significant research that goes into this. They find things like one in a million like with the blood clots. If this were a real problem, it would start to be uncovered and we haven't heard that yet.
TAPPER: Yeah, we would report it. Why wouldn't we report it? Of course, I mean, that's why we reported on the blood clot. It is important that people have all the information. That was with the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, I believe.
GUPTA: Exactly.
TAPPER: Dr. Sanjay Gupta, thank you so much.
Coming up next, strong words from the 22-year-old widow of one of the NYPD officers shot and killed last week.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DOMINIQUE LUZURIAGA, WIDOW OF NYPD OFFICER JASON RIVERA: I know you are tired of these laws, especially the ones from the new D.A. I hope he's watching you, speak through me right now.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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TAPPER: Topping our national lead, a hero's sendoff today for fallen NYPD Officer Jason Rivera. Thousands of officers and others lined the streets of Manhattan today as his friends, colleagues and others remembered the life of the 22-year-old policeman. He was one of two officers gunned down while responding to a domestic dispute in Harlem a week ago.
CNN's Shimon Prokupecz joins us now live from New York.
And, Shimon, his widow, only 22 years old, gave an emotional, gut- wrenching eulogy today. Tell us more.
SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah. So gut-wrenching. Talking to the thousands of officers who are outside and lined up outside the cathedral.
[16:30:04]
She was quite emotional. One of the most emotional moments came when she was recounting an argument that she had with her husband on the day he was killed. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DOMINIQUE LUZURIAGA, WIDOW OF NYPD OFFICER JASON RIVERA: We left the apartment and because I didn't want to continue to argue, I ordered an Uber. You asked me if you are sure that you don't want me to take you home. It might be the last ride I give you. I said no. And that was probably the biggest mistake I ever made.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PROKUPECZ: And then, Jake, she talked about the day he was killed and how she was texting him, trying to find out if he was okay. And then she was asked to come to the hospital. And she never got the chance to say goodbye, Jake.
TAPPER: And, Shimon, she also offered some rather pointed criticism of Manhattan's new district attorney. Tell us more.
PROKUPECZ: Yeah. This has to do with the new policies that he put in place and has been taking a lot of heat for, certainly everyone here in the city. She talked about how the system failed us.
And then she addressed the new D.A. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LUZURIAGA: I don't have faith anymore. Not even the members of the service. I know you are tired of these laws, especially the ones from the new D.A. I hope he's watching you speak through me right now.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PROKUPECZ: And, Jake, he was actually at the funeral, we're told, sitting among other law enforcement officials. It was one of the biggest applause that's she got, a standing ovation. But then also the people outside, the officers and some of the people from the community who were lined up here to watch this funeral, all started applauding what she had said, Jake.
TAPPER: All right. Shimon Prokupecz, thank you so much.
NYPD Officers Rivera and Mora are among the latest policemen killed in a wave of gun violence directed at law enforcement officers. According to the FBI, 2021, saw the highest number of officers intentionally killed in the line of duty in 20 years, with 55 officers killed from gunfire through November, up from 39 during that same period in 2020 and 2019.
Here to discuss, the San Francisco police chief, William Scott.
Chief Scott, thanks for joining us.
You run one of the nation's largest police departments. Why do you think we're seeing this increase in gun violence against law enforcement officers?
CHIEF WILLIAM SCOTT, SAN FRANCISCO POLICE: Well, Jake, thank you for having me.
And, first of all, my condolences to the NYPD, to Officer Rivera and Officer Mora's family. This is just tragic and senseless, and it is really a continuation of I think what has transpired over the last couple years. We saw 2020, historic violence against police officers, and we all get the landscape of 2020 after Mr. Floyd was murdered.
However, we have to have some balance in this conversation. These crimes against police officers are crimes against society. And I hope people see them as that. It's really tough to be a police officer and it is getting tougher by the day.
And when we see what happened in New York and what happened in Houston and other parts of our country, it needs to end and people need to be held accountable when they assault police officers and attack police officers. And that shouldn't even be an argument.
TAPPER: Yeah. So my question is, do you think it is because of the heated rhetoric in light of, in the wake of the murder of George Floyd by Officer Chauvin, former officer Chauvin, or do you think it has to do with less, fewer prosecutions. We've seen some new prosecutors take control, ones with more lenient ideas in terms of crime and punishment as far as the Manhattan district attorney.
I mean, what's the reason? What's fueling it? Or is it all of it in your view? SCOTT: Well, I think it is all of it. When crimes are committed
against police officers, where there's a minor assault, in my opinion. There is no such thing as a minor assault against a police officer. When an officer is out there doing the job that the public is asking them to do and they're doing it lawfully, and doing it within the policies, and they're attacked, that's not a minor thing.
And whether that attack results in no injury or a minor injury or death like we saw with our fallen officers in New York. Nothing about attacking a police officer is minor.
[16:35:02]
And when the evidence is there, it is my professional and personal opinion that there should be consequences when police officers are attacked. And I think when there are policies that broadly dismiss those cases, that's a real problem. It's a problem for our society and it's a problem for policing.
TAPPER: So we've seen the footage and read the reports about the looting episodes in San Francisco. We've seen a lot of incidents committed by homeless individuals in cities throughout the country. What more needs to be done on our local state and national level to keep cities safe and law enforcement officers safe?
SCOTT: Well, we have to have balance in the conversation. You know, many departments, including the San Francisco police department, have undergone a lot of work to put in reform, to make our profession better, to make our police departments better, and that needs to be done.
On the other side of that conversation, we have to have balance with accountability, with people who break the law and violate the law. And I totally understand prison reform. I totally understand a lot of what needs to happen there.
But I think we overcorrect it. I think we overcorrect with some of our initiatives in terms of people not being held accountable when they break the law. And we see people repeatedly go in and out of jail with little to no consequences. What's the disincentive? That needs to get better, and I'm not saying that everybody needs to be locked up for life for minor crimes, but there does need to be some sensible accountability when people break the law.
You know, we have a tremendous challenge in our state and this city with property crime. And to be quite honest with you, we devalue those times of crimes where people have sometimes no incentive not to do it. And that needs to change, Jake. It really does.
I think we need to have some balance in this conversation and I think people are fed up with the way things are and we have to do better with society. There needs to be balance.
TAPPER: San Francisco Police Chief William Scott, thank you so much for your time and your views, sir. Appreciate it.
SCOTT: Thank you.
TAPPER: After today's shocking bridge collapse in Pittsburgh, P.A., we're learning a possible missed signs about the problems that that bridge had. That's next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[16:41:51]
TAPPER: In the national lead, nothing short of a miracle that everyone survived this. Three cars, a truck, city bus, caught in the sudden collapse of a bridge in Pittsburgh this morning. Only minor injuries, however, to report.
Crews had to rappel down the ledge to rescue everyone. But the question is, how on earth did this happen?
CNN's Athena Jones is in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, with the investigation.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ATHENA JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A stop President Biden did not plan to make, a bridge that collapsed this morning.
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: There are literally more bridges in Pittsburgh than any other city in the world. We're going to fix them all.
JONES: The collapse happening just miles from where Biden was scheduled to tout his trillion dollar infrastructure law.
WENDY STROH, PITTSBURGH RESIDENT: It sounded like a huge snowplow pushing along a raw tarmac surface with no snow.
JONES: Several vehicles were on the bridge when it feel early Friday morning. Officials reported only ten injuries. Three people were transported to the hospital.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The good thing at this point that there are no fatalities.
JONES: Described by city officials as a vital artery for the city, the bridge's overall condition was rated poor, in an inspection by the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation last September. But the city's fire chief says this collapse took everyone by surprise.
DARRYL JONES, PITTSBURGH FIRE BUREAU CHIEF: We do have people go out and inspect the bridges. If there was any warning or concern, we would have been notified and we would have made sure that we didn't use this route.
JONES: And were it not for poor weather conditions, the story could have been very different.
LT. GOV. JOHN FETTERMAN (D), PENNSYLVANIA: We were fortunate there was a public school delay and the traffic could have been much more pronounced. We're the city of bridges. I mean -- and how many others are out there?
(END VIDEOTAPE)
JONES (on camera): And you can just make out the scene behind me here. You can see the red Port Authority bus still wedged against the railing. We're keeping our distance so we don't get in the way of first responders.
Now, the investigation into the cause of the collapse is just getting underway with the National Transportation Safety Board having dispatched a go team.
And Alleghany County executive told me that fixing this bridge is a top priority. He said state engineers are estimating it will take at least a year to get it back up and running and that's the best case scenario, Jake.
TAPPER: All right. Athena Jones in Pittsburgh, thanks so much.
New blizzard warnings ahead of the new storm that could become a so- called bomb cyclone. The Northeast and New England are bracing for heavy snow, even possible coastal flooding, all possible in the next 24 hours.
Let's bring in CNN's meteorologist Tom Sater.
Tom, up until now, the system was a bit difficult to predict, I understand.
TOM SATER, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Very much so.
You know, with modern technology and forecasting getting better every day, Jake, when you talk about a major storm five days out, everybody wants to know what's going to fall in my backyard. But the storm only really developed this morning. I mean, the energy for this ejected out of the Rockies just yesterday, and it's off the southeastern coast.
Here's the problem. Until the form develops, you just don't know the path. If it takes that far left track, it's mainly rain on the coast. If it takes far right into the ocean, everything is pretty much on the coastline itself or offshore.
But that sweet spot right in the middle, and now the models are in agreement. That's what we're going to have here. We could have a top ten storm for Boston, maybe a top five. The snowfall in Pittsburgh is part of this. I mean, there is cold air moving in with that energy coming out of the Rockies. So, there's been, you know, one to three inches in several states.
But now that storm goes through that bombogenesis, the pressure drops rapidly in 24 hours, almost as low as a category 2 hurricane as far as the pressure is concerned. But you got snow all the way from lower Maryland, the eastern shore, all the way up into the sweet spot, which is around Plymouth County, just south of Boston. We're talking about several inches of snow, in fact, several feet around the Boston area.
Everybody, please stay home for the day tomorrow. Let the crews do their job. We'll be watching this throughout the day tomorrow, Jake.
TAPPER: All right. Meteorologist Tom Sater, thanks so much.
Speaking of stormy, as if porn star Stormy Daniels talking to dead people was not bizarre enough, a new twist late today in the case against Michael Avenatti. Stay with us.
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[16:50:43]
TAPPER: In our national lead, another bizarre day of testimony in the trial of Attorney Michael Avenatti. Today, adult film actress and director, Stephanie Clifford, also known as Stormy Daniels spent four hours being cross examined by her former attorney over allegations that Avenatti cheated her out of $300,000 from a book deal.
Avenatti represented Daniels, of course, in her infamous hush money lawsuit against then President Donald Trump.
CNN's Kara Scannell joins us now live from New York.
And, Kara, Avenatti picked up where he left off yesterday, trying to undermine his former client's credibility, questioning her about her claims that she communicates with dead people. Tell us more.
KARA SCANNELL, CNN REPORTER: Yeah, Jake. He did. Almost immediately off the bat he began on that line of questioning.
He asked her about several claims she's made about experiencing a poltergeist phenomena, seeing shadowy figures, hearing sounds in her home in New Orleans, and also, her claims that she saw in her kitchen a woman who was crying and then moments later, Daniels saying she was then covered in blood.
Daniels didn't deny any of that on the stand. She said it was all part of a show she was filming, "Spooky Babe".
Now, Avenatti also went to the substance. He tried to get the jury to think that Daniels was lying on the stand today because she had lied in 2018 when she issued the statement saying she didn't have an affair with Donald Trump and she didn't receive any hush money payments. Well, Daniels explained that Michael Cohen, who was Donald Trump's then lawyer, who was also in court today as a spectator, had written that statement, making that denial. She called that denial complete B.S. but used a more explicit terms.
She also said her attorney at the time, not Avenatti, had told her she had to sign it.
Avenatti also, part of his defense was that he was entitled to money. That's why he claims he took $300,000 from Daniels. Well, he showed the jury bank statements today that the prosecution had admitted as evidence where it shows that he made a $100,000 payment to buy two videos before her 60 minutes appearance.
Now, Avenatti said he showed the line items there showing one of the payments he said went to a person named Bubba the Love Sponge. Now, the jury didn't learn what was on those videos outside of their presence. They joked about it saying that obviously people would want to know but they wouldn't.
The prosecution said they will rest on Monday, Jake.
TAPPER: Spooky Babes. Another reference to "Spooky Babes" on THE LEAD. Appreciate it, Kara.
So, if Avenatti said that he is open to testifying in his own defense but he's been acting as his own attorney. So, how would that even work?
SCANNELL: Yeah, it is such an interesting and rare phenomena, and the judge had kind of grappled with how he would handle it. So he made a proposal after Avenatti said he was strongly leaning in favor of testifying.
The judge said that Avenatti could write out the questions he would ask himself. Have his advisory attorneys, the ones he had fired but standing by, have one of them read the questions to him. He would sit in the witness box and answer it. Avenatti said that would be his preference so we'll wait until Monday to see what his decision is and if he will testify in his own defense -- Jake.
TAPPER: All right. Kara Scannell, thank you so much. Appreciate it.
He promised to give kids a voice in their schooling and now, Virginia's new governor is under fire for a tip line for parents. That's ahead. Stay with us.
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[16:58:38]
TAPPER: Welcome to THE LEAD. I'm Jake Tapper.
This hour, profiting from policing a small town making big bucks from what drivers say are bogus police charges and racial profiling and just as CNN arrives to cover the story, the top cop suddenly resigns.
Plus, skeletons in the closet as President Biden kicks off his Supreme Court vetting process. We find out what happens behind the scenes in the search for the perfect high court pick.
And leading this hour. It does feel different. America's top general warning what is happening along the Ukrainian-Russian border seems unprecedented to him, saying he hand seen anything of this magnitude since the Cold War.
As CNN's Barbara Starr reports for us now, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman General Mark Milley painted a dark picture today of what this potential Russian invasion could do to Ukraine. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Vladimir Putin goes for a full scale invasion of Ukraine, America's top general laid out just how grim war could be.
How disastrous could it be in your assessment?
GEN. MARK MILLEY, JOINT CHIEFS CHAIRMAN: If that was unleashed on Ukraine, it would be significant. Very significant. And it would result in a significant amount of casualties.
And you can imagine what that might look like in dense urban areas, along roads and so on and so forth. It would be horrific. It would be terrible.
STARR: Russia's build-up increasing in just the last 48 hour, according to the Pentagon.
