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The Lead with Jake Tapper

Governors Tell White House They Need "Clear Guidelines" On How To "Move Beyond The Pandemic"; U.S. & Russia Face Off In High-Stakes U.N. Meeting On Ukraine; CNN Exclusive: Top Pence Aide Testifies Before Jan. 6 Committee; Biden To Select Supreme Court Nominee By End Of February; North Korea Fires Longest-Range Missile Since 2017; U.S. & Russia Face Off In High-Stakes U.N. Meeting On Ukraine. Aired 4-5p ET

Aired January 31, 2022 - 16:00   ET

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

[16:00:25]

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: So what does getting past the pandemic look like anyway?

THE LEAD starts right now.

From mask mandates to vaccine requirements, new calls today to consider changing all the rules as the U.S. nears what could be the endemic phase of COVID. We're going to tell you the metric that experts want to use going forward.

Plus, the Supreme Court short list, a source telling CNN, the White House could begin reaching out to possible Supreme Court candidates as soon as this week. Who are the current judges most favored?

And, the Winter Olympic Games just four days away. We're going to show you the dark controversies that Beijing wants to distract from during the games. That's our new series, "Behind China's Wall".

Welcome to THE LEAD. I'm Jake Tapper.

We start today in the health lead. A bipartisan group of governors is calling on President Biden to offer clear guidelines on how the U.S. can move beyond the pandemic now that new COVID cases and hospitalizations are falling dramatically in the United States. Even in places where the omicron variant hit later in the surge. In fact, 45 states in the U.S. are currently seeing cases decline or hold steady in the past week.

But that's not the map that local officials used to determine when or if restrictions such as mask wearing and social distancing can be ditched. This is the map they used: the level of community transmission. It measures new cases per 100,000 residents. And nearly every U.S. county, as you see there, is still considered high.

As CNN's Nick Watt reports, some public health experts are saying this yardstick needs to change.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I will be shocked if this is stopped. I don't see this going away.

NICK WATT, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Okay. So can when can we return to normal-ish life? Live with COVID-19? Lift restrictions? Right now, the CDC bench mark is 10 or fewer cases per 100,000 in a week.

And all those red counties are now at 100 plus, ten times too high.

DR. SCOTT GOTTLIEB, FORMER FDA COMMISSIONER: We may need to rethink that with this new omicron strain. We may stall out around 20. That may be the point when we have to consider withdrawing these measures.

WATT: Because omicron is more contagious but generally causes less severe disease.

GOV. ASA HUTCHINSON (R), ARKANSAS: We need to move away from the pandemic and we ask the president to help give us clear guidelines on how we can return to a greater state of normality.

WATT: Tomorrow, San Francisco, among most COVID cautious cities, will slightly ease its strict indoor mask mandate.

Across the country, average new case counts are falling fast, down 39 percent from the omicron peak. Hospitalizations also falling.

DR. PETER HOTEZ, PROFESSOR & DEAN OF TROPICAL MEDICINE, BAYLOR COLLEGE OF MEDICINE: Look what is happening in the U.K. now. It started to come down really fast. And then it got stuck. Whether that's because of the new version of omicron, BA.2 or some other factors, we don't entirely know yet, but that's a real possibility in the U.S.

WATT: Today a victory for facts and science. Two 70 something musicians, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, basically shamed their Spotify stable mate, Joe Rogan.

JOE ROGAN, HOST, "THE JOE ROGAN EXPERIENCE": If you're 21 years old and you say, should I get vaccinated? I go no.

WATT: Into easing up on the COVID-19 misinformation on his popular podcast.

ROGAN: If there is anything that I've done that I can do better is have more experts with differing opinions right after I have the controversial ones. I am going to do my best in the future to balance things out. I'm going to do my best.

WATT: In spite of Rogan and others, about two-thirds of Americans are now fully vaccinated. But in say, Indonesia, it is still less than half. In Guatemala, less than a third. Nigeria, less than 3 percent.

HOTEZ: I think right now, we're a set-up. We're a set-up for another variant this summer. I don't know if it will be from the African continent or Latin America or Southeast Asia, but we have to assume it will hit us again.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WATT (on camera): And so bottom line on Joe Rogan, is he will still have people on his podcast peddling misinformation. He'll just have an actual scientist afterward to call out the crazy. Not ideal but better.

[16:05:02]

You know, Joni Mitchell summed it up perfectly. She said irresponsible people are spreading lies that are costing people their lives. Important to remember that still more than 2,000 people are dying in this country every day from COVID-19.

And, Jake, that number is still going up. Back to you.

TAPPER: All right. From Los Angeles, thank you.

Let's bring in CNN medical analyst, Dr. Jonathan Reiner.

Dr. Reiner, let's show that community transmission map again. Even though case numbers and hospitalizations have been declining, the community transmission, cases, not hospitalizations, deaths, cases, is so high, many local officials are the decision to keep restrictions like mask mandates in place. When do you think restrictions can or should start to ease?

DR. JONATHAN REINER, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: It's going to depend on the level of not just cases, not just transmission, but what the hospital situation looks like in every community. Right now, there are about 250 counties in the United States with no hospital bed capacity. And as the wave of omicron sort of declines in the United States, and it's going to do it in a way coming from the Northeast down towards the South, we'll be able to open up.

Cases in New York City and Washington, D.C. have declined since the peak, at the early part of January, by about 85 percent. Case positivity rates in New York are down from 10 percent last week to 5 percent today. So things are moving very quickly. And places like New York and D.C. may be able to drop more restrictions soon.

George Washington University where I work has basically removed all COVID restrictions. They had a basketball game filled with students yesterday. So, we'll see that --

TAPPER: Were they masked? Or --

REINER: Students were masked but they were allowed to come to the game now.

TAPPER: Yeah. So, the National Association of County and City Health Officials says it's time for the metrics to change. We should note, this is not just a -- it's not the same thing as if these individuals have been saying it in the summer of 2000. Now there is a vaccine, right? REINER: Right.

TAPPER: The omicron variant is apparently not as bad as delta was, although it is more contagious, apparently. But now there are stronger therapeutics. I mean, the facts on the ground have changed.

Do you agree with the National Association of County and City Health Officials that the metric should change?

REINER: The metric should change but let's listen to the pediatricians, for example. They issued a statement today. The American Academy of Pediatrics issued a statement which prioritize keeping schools open which we all agree with.

TAPPER: Right.

REINER: But they also stated their strong preference to keep social distancing measures in place and keeping masking in place as tools to keep kids in school.

Now, as the level of community spread drops dramatically, when we get down to levels that we saw right around July 4th, yeah. Then you can start to think about dropping some of these other sort of secondary measures, masking and social distancing. But right now, there are 500,000 cases per day in the United States. This is -- and we're seeing more cases now than we did last winter, which was our largest spike to date.

So there's still a lot of COVID in the United States. While we all want to look ahead --

TAPPER: Yeah.

REINER: -- we need to have basic -- we need to be realistic and say it's going to take a while to get there.

TAPPER: One of the things that -- look, this show has been talking about the need to open schools since the summer of 2020. So I'm not against that and we've been talking. Because we've been following the science and that's what they've been saying.

One of the things that's a little bit frustrating is people demanding schools be open, people demanding the students don't have to wear masks without acknowledging that most kids are still not vaccinated. If you want -- it seems to me, you want to open the schools as safely as possible, you know, all the kids and teachers and faculty and staff need to be vaccinated. That's the safest thing to do, right?

REINER: Right. You can't have it both ways. You can't not vaccinated your kids and want them to go to school completely unencumbered. You know, right now, if you look at children in the United States, less than half of children who are eligible for vaccines are vaccinated. And remember, no child under the age of 5 in this country is vaccinated.

Last week, there were 2 million cases in kids. TAPPER: Yeah. So, there are so many people around the world who are

not vaccinated and there is the threat of more variants. I mean, we don't know what comes after omicron, hopefully nothing but probably something. At what point do you see this pandemic moving into an endemic phase, meaning it's a deadly disease that we live with like the flu. Obviously, the rate of death right now is much higher than with the flu.

REINER: Right. Well, you know, currently we have 2500 deaths a day in the United States.

[16:10:02]

TAPPER: Right.

REINER: So, next week at this time, we'll pass 900,000 deaths, then we'll start to look at an even more awful landmark of a million dead in the United States.

TAPPER: Right. You can't compare it to the flu.

REINER: No. You can't compare it to the flu. Look, when we start to see much lower levels of cases in the United States, where in this country, there are less than 10,000 cases. Less than 5,000 cases per day in the United States, spread out throughout the country, then we're going to be at more of an endemic level.

Remember, the definition of endemic includes basically, low, stable levels of disease. But endemic, or endemic diseases can cause a lot of death. Tuberculosis which has been endemic for millennia kills a million and half people a year. HIV has been endemic now for 40 years, that kills a million people a year around the world. Malaria kills 600,000.

So yes, this will drop to an endemic disease at some point. But we're still going to have to learn to live with it so that we minimize --

TAPPER: Right.

REINER: -- the illness and death from it.

TAPPER: Yeah. Dr. Jonathan Reiner, thanks so much. Appreciate it.

Troops on the border and weapons at the ready. All signs point to a Ukraine invasion ordered by Vladimir Putin himself. But is that Putin's end goal? A critical meeting today tried to get answers.

Plus, a warning shot around the world. Why North Korea's latest missile test is seen as its boldest in years.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:15:38] TAPPER: Topping our world lead, the United States and Russia facing off today at the United Nations Security Council. Russia accusing the U.S. of misleading the world about what's really going on at the Ukrainian-Russian border and the U.S. urging others to see the situation on the ground as urgent and dangerous.

As CNN's Phil Mattingly reports, the meeting comes as President Biden fires off a stark new warning to Moscow.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We continue to urge diplomacy as the best way forward.

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): President Biden and his top advisers working urgently to avoid war in Europe.

LINDA THOMAS-GREENFIELD, U.S. AMBASSADOR TO THE U.N.: I cannot let the false equivalency go unchecked.

MATTINGLY: But a fiery diplomatic confrontation underscoring the scale of the problem.

VASSILY NEBENZA, RUSSIAN AMBASSADOR TO THE U.N. (through translator): You are almost calling for this. You want it to happen. You're waiting for to it happen.

MATTINGLY: As world leaders continue to grapple with a looming military confrontation on the border of Ukraine.

BIDEN: We are ready no matter what happens.

MATTINGLY: Biden ramping up U.S. pressure in the midst of the U.N. security council meeting, releasing a statement, warning of, quote, swift and severe consequences if Russia foregoes a diplomatic solutions. Consequence that include targeting President Vladimir Putin's closest allies.

JEN PSAKI, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: We have developed specific packages for both Russian elites and their family members if Russian further invades Ukraine.

MATTINGLY: The U.S. ambassador to the U.N., Linda Thomas-Greenfield, laying out a detailed case for alarm and potential resolution.

THOMAS-GREENFIELD: The provocations from Russia, not from us, or other members of this council. We have made clear our commitment to the path of diplomacy.

MATTINGLY: The Secretary of State Antony Blinken set to have a call with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov on Tuesday, all as bipartisan lawmakers on Capitol Hill move closer to agreement on their own efforts to construct major repercussions for any Russian action.

SEN. BOB MENENDEZ (D-NJ): These are sanctions beyond any that we have ever levied before and I think that that sends a very clear message.

MATTINGLY: As the White House continues to navigate the delicate balance between its clear warnings --

PSAKI: It's dangerous. We've been saying more than a week that Russia could invade at any time.

MATTINGLY: And a Ukrainian leader who has publicly question that had view and strategy.

PRES. VOLODYMYR ZELENSKY, UKRAINE: We don't have any misunderstandings with President Biden. I just deeply understand what is going on in my country just as he understands perfectly well what is going on in the United States.

MATTINGLY: The White House making clear that view and posture remains unchanged.

PSAKI: We feel it is important to be open and candid about the threat from Russia.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MATTINGLY (on camera): Jake, the president's remarks on Ukraine today came before a meeting with the emir of Qatar. And, obviously, Qatar has been a critical ally on several major issues the U.S. is dealing with on the foreign policy front, but perhaps no more than Ukraine. It is one of the biggest exporters of liquefied gas in the world and it is expected to be one of the countries that would play a role in any contingency planning. Should Russia invade, the U.S. sanction the country and Russia takes action on its own natural gas exports, the U.S. really trying to address Ukraine on pretty much everything it deals with it at this point, Jake.

TAPPER: All right. Phil Mattingly at the White House for us, thanks so much.

Meanwhile, Russia is still fortifying its positions, along the Ukrainian border. A U.S. official tells CNN it appears Moscow has moved critical blood supplies to its border. Extra blood, of course, would theoretically be necessary to treat casualties in case of conflict.

CNN's Clarissa Ward joins us now from Mariupol, Ukraine, which is right near the border with Russia.

And, Clarissa, how do Ukrainian forces there feel about the possibility of an attack? Do they think it's inevitable?

CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: They do not seem to think it's inevitable, Jake.

And let me just sort of spell it out for our viewers. We are here in this port city, Mariupol. If there was a Russian invasion, the people here would be among the first in this country to find out because Russia is about 25 miles behind me. You've got the Sea of Azov down to my left. There are Russian ships on the Sea of Azov. And so, if there was a movement into the country, this city would be cut off pretty quickly.

But it's extraordinary. We have been here now a couple of days, talking to people on the ground, walking around the city, exploring those front line areas. And nobody here seems to believe that an invasion is imminent. We found people ice skating, going to the market.

[16:20:01]

We tried to talk to them. A lot of them concede that they do view President Vladimir Putin as an enemy of sorts but the Ukrainian leadership has been messaging really strongly now that it is not possible for Russia to launch an all-out invasion. And as a result, you're seeing people here really buy into that narrative.

And that seems honestly, Jake, to extend to Ukrainian forces. When we've been exploring around these front line areas, there's maybe one or two checkpoints right before you get up to that front line. It doesn't seem like they're really bolstering their defenses or trying to create depth to prevent the Russians from coming far at all, Jake.

TAPPER: I hope they're right. But the top U.S. general warned last week of a horrific outcome if Russian forces are, quote, unleashed on Ukraine.

If necessary, are the Ukrainian forces ready to fight? Ready to defend their country?

WARD: They say that they're ready to fight. They say that they have been preparing. But we just haven't seen it in terms of heavy weaponry. More forces deployed. More tanks, for example, deployed.

It's possible they are deploying to a different area, that they don't want to signal to the Russians where they are bolstering their forces. But certainly in this area, along the Sea of Azov, down in the southeast of the country, we do not see any build-up.

I was on a front line position two years ago and it looks pretty much exactly the same two years later. And again, we keep hearing from Ukrainian intelligence. And it is in such stark opposition to the very strong intelligence we're hearing from the U.S. that they genuinely don't believe this is going to happen.

Are they in denial? Is it disbelief? Is it simply a narrative to prevent panic? To prevent foreigners from withdrawing money from the economy?

At this stage, Jake, it's anybody's guess. But the people here in the city of Mariupol are, for the most part, calm and carrying on with life as usual.

TAPPER: All right. Clarissa Ward, reporting live from Ukraine, right near the Russian border. Thank you. It is the pick of a lifetime. How Biden choice for the Supreme Court

is drawing judgment before anyone has even been named. And why it matters. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:26:51]

TAPPER: We have breaking news for you now in our politics lead.

CNN is learning that another key witness has testified before the January 6th committee.

Our special correspondent Jamie Gangel has the exclusive breaking news.

Jamie, what can you tell us?

JAMIE GANGEL, CNN SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT: So this is along with our colleague, Gloria Borger, Jeremy Herb. We have learned that Marc Short, former chief of staff to former Vice President Mike Pence, very quietly last Wednesday went into the committee in person and testified, I am told, quote, at length for clarity. He was subpoenaed to come in and I'm also told that any documents he handed over were also under subpoena.

Just to remind everybody, I mean, this is Mike Pence's most loyal top aide. He was with Mike Pence in the Oval Office on January 4th when Trump and the lawyer, John Eastman, were trying to pressure Pence to overturn the election. And Marc Short was also with former vice president pence at the Capitol on January 6th.

TAPPER: When the crowd was chanting "hang Mike Pence".

GANGEL: Right.

For the record, the committee has declined to comment. I reached out to Marc Short. He has also declining to comment.

TAPPER: So, one would think that Short would not do this without at least former Vice President Pence assenting and saying, okay, it's okay.

GANGEL: Correct.

TAPPER: What might this mean for Pence potentially cooperating with the committee?

GANGEL: So no question. Marc Short did not do this without Mike Pence's blessing. We don't know yet whether Mike Pence is going to cooperate and go in. We know there have been some initial discussions. I think it is fair to say that he would like his team around him, people like Marc Short, his counsel, Greg Jacob, to speak to the committee first. And then once that's done, if the committee still needs to speak to him I think he will consider it.

TAPPER: All right. Interesting.

Jamie Gangel, thank you so much. Really appreciate it. Great reporting as always.

Turning to the Supreme Court. More than 100 influential black female leaders thanked President Biden in a letter this weekend for upholding his historic promise to nominate a black woman to the highest court.

For the White House, the next few weeks will be nonstop as President Biden's top aides meet with a pool of highly qualified contenders including three who are emerging as clear front runners.

And as CNN's Jessica Schneider reports for us now, if Biden picks one of those frontrunners, he could have bipartisan support from none other than Trump loyalist Senator Lindsey Graham.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JESSICA SCHNEIDER, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The White House casting a wide net as President Biden considers who to nominate to replace Justice Stephen Breyer on the Supreme Court. A source familiar with the discussions says several new names are emerging, adding up to more than a dozen possible prospects.

But three are considered to be on the short list. The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, California State Supreme Court Justice Leondra Kruger, and Michelle Childs, a federal judge on the district court in South Carolina. Her name, the only one officially confirmed by White House officials as being under consideration after they had to put a hearing on her nomination to the D.C. circuit on hold.

[16:30:06]

Childs drawing praise from fellow South Carolinian, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham.

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-SC): She is considered to be a fair-minded, highly gifted jurist. She is one of the most decent people I've ever met. It would be good for the court to have somebody who's not at Harvard or Yale. She's a graduate of the University of South Carolina.

SCHNEDIER: President Biden saying he'll make his pick by the end of February. And Senate Democrats saying they'll expedite the process as soon as possible with some calling for a so-called Amy Coney Barrett time line. Her Supreme Court nomination came exactly one month after she was nominated.

SEN. DICK DURBIN (D-IL): When he chooses a nominee and sends it to the Senate, then we're off and running.

SCHNEIDER: But the process is still expected to be rocky with some Republicans already requesting Biden's pledge to pick a black woman.

SEN. ROGER WICKER (R-MS): The irony is the Supreme Court is at the very same time hearing cases about this sort of affirmative racial discrimination.

HOST: Yes.

WICKER: And while adding someone who is the beneficiary of this sort of quota.

SCHNEIDER: Wicker's comments drawing criticism as more than 100 influential black women leaders in a letter praised Biden's commitment to select a black woman for the position. Senator Durbin reminding Republicans that Biden wouldn't be the first president to set certain standards for a Supreme Court nominee.

DURBIN: I remind them to take a look back at history and remember that it was Ronald Reagan who announced he would appoint a woman to the Supreme Court and he did. Sandra Day O'Connor and it was Donald Trump who announced that he was going to replace Ruth Bader Ginsburg with a woman nominee as well. So, this is not the first time a president has signaled what they're looking for in a nominee.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SCHNEIDER (on camera): And the White House is expected to begin reaching out to and potentially meeting possible candidates as soon as this week. President Biden will also meet with the top Democrat and Republican of the Senate Judiciary Committee tomorrow at the White House. Chairman Dick Durbin, ranking Republican Chuck Grassley, officials say it will be to solicit advice about the process.

So, Jake, President Biden really looking to get the buy-in from both parties right from the start here.

TAPPER: All right. Jessica Schneider, thanks so much.

An apology in grand fashion from British Prime Minister Boris Johnson. Why his words may be too late to save his political future after a damning report into his multiple parties while other Brits were under strict COVID lockdown.

Stay with us.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BORIS JOHNSON, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: I know what the issue is.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:37:01]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHNSON: Firstly, I want to say sorry. And I'm sorry for the things we simply didn't get right and also sorry for the way this matter has been handled. But, Mr. Speaker, it isn't enough to say sorry. This is a moment when we must look at ourselves in the mirror and we must learn.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: That apology from British Prime Minister Boris Johnson coming after today's partial release of the damning long-awaited report on the so-called party-gate scandal. The report shining new light on the Johnson team's booze-fueled parties during the COVID lockdowns, and finds that the Johnson government gave little thought to following its own public health rules it was imposing on everyone else.

CNN's Salma Abdelaziz joins us now live from Downing Street in London.

Salma, tell us more about what the report says about these parties.

SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Jake, this is an absolutely damning report. I want to read you a key portion here. I know we have that quote up for you.

There were failures of leadership in judgment by different parts of Number 10 and the cabinet office at different times.

I mean, this is a summary report and yet it is way worse than the prime minister expected. At times, it seems to scold this government like bad teenagers reminding them that excessive drinking at the workplace is not allowed. I mean, it's not just here about one party or two parties or three parties. Jake, there are 16 different events in this report. A report that outlines a culture of partying and drinking under the prime minister's roof, a culture of disrespecting the sacrifices of police families, a culture of acting elite, of acting above the law.

Now, Prime Minister Johnson was back in parliament, really to defend the indefensible. Today, you heard him there saying he's sorry and he's going to fix it. But for large portions of the British government, they've lost -- they've lost their trust in him. He is the man at the top of this government. How can he be the man to fix it?

TAPPER: Yeah. Just to remind our viewers, I mean, they weren't letting people to go funerals in the U.K. for members of loved ones who died of COVID because of these very strict rules. Can Johnson survive as prime minister?

ABDELAZIZ: I think that's the question that everybody is asking right now. If you're asking the public here, the answer would be no. Two- thirds of people in this country want to see the prime minister resign. And it is what you said there, because they could not go home to see loved ones who are dying of COVID-19, because they could not hold funerals at a time when people were drinking and partying behind me here.

But it's not going to be up to the public. It's going to be up to the prime minister's own party, the conservative party. There's a growing rebellion in there and after he was in parliament today, that's where he went next. He met with his own party members. He tried a PR campaign there and he's bought himself another day. But here's what we need to remember, Jake. This is only the beginning.

There is still a police probe that looks into all of these parties and to even more serious allegations of COVID violations.

[16:40:01]

People behind me here could be fined for breaking the rules. That police report could spell the end of Johnson -- Jake.

TAPPER: All right. Salma Abdelaziz in London, thank you so much.

Is this a test of the emergency broadcast system? The message North Korea is sending to the U.S. and the world with yet another missile launch, this time the boldest in years.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TAPPER: In our world lead, with the world spotlight shining on Asia, for the Olympics, over the weekend, North Korea fired its most powerful ballistic missile in years.

[16:45:08]

It's the hermit kingdom's seventh missile test in just the last month.

CNN's Oren Liebermann is live for us at the Pentagon.

And, Oren, this is a clear escalation for North Korea. What do we know about this test?

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: It is, Jake.

Seven missile launches just this month means the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is firing off missiles once every four or five days.

This was different though. Until now, what we've seen in January is short-range ballistic missiles and some cruise missiles. But this, according to analysts, was an intermediate range ballistic missile. It reached an altitude of about 1,200 miles, a height of about 1,200 miles, and went about 500 miles in its trajectory. But analysts say had it been fired upon a normal ballistic missile trajectory, it could have gone to about 3,500 miles. That's about enough to cover a large area of the Pacific Ocean.

And that's why it is so concerning, not only the range but the escalation, but also because of the escalation, from short missiles to cruise missiles, not to intermediate ballistic missiles. The last time North Korea fired off a missile like this was back in 2017. Soon there after, Kim Jong-un put in place a self-imposed moratorium on firing medium range ballistic missiles.

And, Jake, that raises the next question. If you fire off an intermediate range now, is an ICBM next? TAPPER: And, Oren, U.S. officials have said the Biden administration,

they want to restart diplomatic talks with Pyongyang. Is this a sign that Kim Jong-un is not interested?

LIEBERMANN: Certainly right now, it seems like he isn't interested. The bigger question is, what's the goal of all this? Is this messaging? Is this simply weapons testing that he feels he has a right to do and North Korea intends to carry out?

That remains a mystery. It's incredibly difficult to get into the head of North Korean leadership. What is clear, the Pentagon said this a short time ago. With each one of these missile tests, the North Koreans are learning. Their advanced weaponry, much as it violates U.N. Security Council resolutions when it's launched, it is an ability to improve those weapons and that in and of itself is a dangerous situation.

But the U.S. government made clear, they are ready to engage in diplomacy with North Korea even if there are obviously other issues going on right now. That remains a key one for the administration if the opportunity presents itself, which Jake, it doesn't look like it is doing right now.

TAPPER: So, Erin, what seems to have changed? What do experts think has changed from Kim Jong-un's perspective now that he's begun firing off these missiles every few days?

LIEBERMANN: This is the hardest question to answer, perhaps. We saw some missile tests late last year, in September, in December, but not at this frenetic pace of launches. Again, it's incredibly difficult to get into Kim Jong-un's head. Whether this is simply him firing off the missiles and testing the missile that he has shown before in parades and at military shows, or whether this is messaging to try to improve a position vis-a-vis the United States when it comes to future negotiations.

That's the key question here. Unfortunately, at this moment, it's very difficult to answer that question with no diplomatic options, at least right now on the immediate horizon.

TAPPER: All right. Oren Liebermann at the Pentagon for us, thanks so much.

Ahead, the start of Beijing Winter Olympics later this week, it officially kicks off Friday, we're going to start a new series here at THE LEAD. It's called "Behind China's Wall", because behind the fanfare and the glamour of the upcoming Olympic Games are a lot of ugly truths that the Chinese government wants you to ignore.

CNN's David Culver sets the scene with a look at the horrors President Xi wants to you forget about while you're cheering on your favorite athletes this week.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAVID CULVER, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Beijing counting down to the winter games. Its second Olympics taking place amidst frigid geopolitical tensions and a raging pandemic.

CHRISTINE BRENNAN, CNN SPORTS ANALYST: This is the largest regularly scheduled peacetime gathering of the world and yet there can be no gathering.

CULVER: What is likely to be lost is that sporting events are taking place. That's because in the years leading up, China has faced growing outside pressures and domestically its zero COVID policy is proving increasingly difficult to stick to.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Beijing!

CULVER: Seven years ago, Beijing won the 2022 Olympic bid, the first city to host both a Summer and Winter Games. But it came as China's relations with the West rapidly fell apart.

Under an increasingly powerful supreme ruler, Xi Jinping, China is on a drastically different path than what the west hoped -- cooperation replaced by confrontation, on multiple fronts, from a trade war to threats of an actual war in the South China Sea. In Hong Kong, Beijing quickly squashed pro democracy protests it is and now mounding pressure on Taiwan, pushing for the self-governing democracy to fall under Beijing's control.

Then there are the widespread allegations of human rights abuses. CNN traveled to the far west region of Xinjiang.

[16:50:02]

It's here that U.S. and other countries accuse China of committing genocide against its ethnic Uighur population. China has repeatedly denied that it's detained that they have tortured them and called them politically motivated lies.

But that has not silenced the West. The U.S., U.K., Australia and Canada among countries protesting through a diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Olympics.

JEN PSAKI, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: The Biden administration will not send any diplomatic or official representation to the 2022 Olympics.

CULVER: The diplomatic boycott coinciding with the case of Chinese tennis star Peng Shuai. The former Olympian briefly disappeared in November after she accused a retired national leader of pressuring her into sex. It just so happens to be the same official who led Beijing's bid for the 2022 Games. Amid a growing global outcry, Peng hasn't resurfaced and multiple state media reports denying she made the accusation.

Some have accused the International Olympic Committee of being complicit in China's the control over Peng's story. As its president, Thomas Bach, tried to reassure the world of Peng's wellbeing after two video calls with her.

The IOC advocating for silent diplomacy to better handle the matter. Bach now in Beijing is expected to meet with Peng soon.

But that meeting happening behind closed doors, inside the so-called closed loop. That's the Olympic bubble holding the athletes, the personnel, the incoming media, kept separate from the rest of China.

This as the number of new COVID-19 cases continues to rise and spread across the mainland.

China facing a renewed challenge to halt this latest surge. Snap lockdowns, mass testing, contact tracing, all of it stepped up as the country works to show its superiority in containing the virus. State media containing to label the virus as an imported threat. Even dating back to the initial outbreak in Wuhan, a consistent propaganda effort to deflect blame and refocus global attention on what is supposed to be a spectacular and unifying event.

And threatening to cast a darker shadow over these games, growing tensions between Russia and Ukraine with Russian President Vladimir Putin expected to meet President Xi on the sidelines of the opening ceremony. These Olympics playing out amidst an increasingly divided world.

David Culver. CNN, Beijing.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TAPPER: Turning now to our money lead within just a week of the public outcry that a Tennessee school district yanked the book from its reading list, the graphic novel "Maus", which was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in people in 1992 is now back on today's best selling list. The book is a powerful account of the author's father's experience with the horrors of the Holocaust and creatively depicts Jews as mice and Nazis as cats.

Earlier this month, as you might recall, the McMinn County board of education in Tennessee voted unanimously to remove the novel from its eighth grade curriculum over, quote, rough, objectionable language, the use of the word damn. And also, a drawing of a nude woman which the author says is a tiny image depicting his mother's suicide in a bath tube.

Today, "Maus" appeared on the bestseller at Amazon, at Barnes & Noble, and online bookseller, Bookshelf.

Coming up, fears of war and threats of invasion. Russia calls the claims hysteria, but the U.S. says it's dangerous and inevitable. A bipartisan U.S. delegation is just back from Ukraine. I'll ask a Democrat and a Republican from that group about their sense of what's going on on the ground in Ukraine. That's next.

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TAPPER: Welcome to THE LEAD. I'm Jake Tapper.

This hour, has Donald Trump finally gone too far? This weekend, he baselessly accused two prosecutors going after him, two black women, of being, quote, racist and mentally sick. He dangled out the possibility of pardoning criminal defendants charged in the January 6th insurrection.

He admitted he wanted Vice President Pence to, quote, overturn the election. And Republicans are pushing back on his latest outrageous rhetoric. But will they finally stand up?

Plus, a so-called freedom convoy shutting down some of the busiest streets in Canada. Truckers making their anger felt about vaccine mandates and more just across the border.

And leading this hour, Russia, front and center at a U.N. Security Council meeting today, offering no explanation for its heavy troop build-up along the Ukrainian border. The U.S. leaders say Russia walked away with one clear message, knowing Ukraine has support from around the world if Russia does dare an invasion.

Joining us live from the United Nations right now, CNN's Kylie Atwood.

Kylie, how contentious did this U.N. Security Council meeting get today.

KYLIE ATWOOD, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Jake, incredibly sharp divisions on display here, revealing in this public setting virtually no ground for a diplomatic breakthrough. With the U.S. side, U.S. ambassador to the U.N., Linda Thomas-Greenfield, calling this a dangerous and urgent situation that Russia has created with its military build-up along Ukraine's border, saying it would be horrific, the consequences, if Russia were to go forward with that invasion.

And then Russia pointing the finger back at the United States, saying they are drumming up hysteria, saying there is no proof that they plan to invade Ukraine. And here is what the U.N. ambassador to the U.S. said when Russia tried to point the finger back at the United States.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LINDA THOMAS-GREENFIELD, U.S. AMBASSADOR TO THE U.N.: You've heard from our Russian colleagues that we're calling for this meeting to make you all feel uncomfortable.