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The Lead with Jake Tapper

U.S. Alleges Moscow Planning To Fabricate "Graphic" Video Depicting A Fake Attack On Russia Crafted To Frame NATO; Sen. Mark Warner, (D-VA), Is Interviewed About Russia, Ukraine, U.S. Troops, Germany; 3,000 U.S. Troops To Deploy To Europe As Russian Threat Looms; U.S. Spokespeople Bristle At Reporters' Skepticism After They Ask For Proof Of Administration's Claims; Biden Announces New Actions To Combat Gun Violence; FAA Head Grilled Over Botched 5G Rollout Amid Flight Safety Concerns; Dem Leaders Planning For Swift Timeline Despite Lujan's Absence; Xi & Putin Grow Closer As Relations With West Deteriorate; China Warns Athletes To Be Careful About What They Say; Growing Number Of Olympic Athletes Testing Positive; Judges Storm Out After Rudy Giuliani On "The Masked Singer." Aired 5-6p ET

Aired February 03, 2022 - 17:00   ET

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

[17:00:00]

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Ukrainian officials insist they're ready for any Russian attack. But a downplaying talk of a conflict.

OLEKSIY REZNIKOV, UKRANIAN DEFENSE MINISTER (through translator): The situation is under control. The number of Russian provocations has decreased recently. In the past 21 days, not a single Ukrainian soldier has been killed by the enemy.

CHANCE (voice-over): But U.S. intelligence continues to assess an armed conflict is being planned, mid new warnings of a possible false flag operation. Although the timing is no longer being referred to in public as imminent. Ukrainian officials say that's an important diplomatic results and will help calm any panic. But with Russian forces, now massing near Ukraine on multiple fronts, it may be the calm before the storm.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

CHANCE: Well, Jake, tonight's European diplomats tell CNN that those Russian troop deployments near the Ukrainian border inside Belarus are a big worry, and would be a crucial piece if Russia intends to make a quick strike here, the Ukrainian capital, which is less than two hours away. Back to you.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: Matthew Chance reporting live in Kiev, Ukraine. Thank you so much.

Joining us now live to discuss, Democratic Senator Mark Warner from the Commonwealth of Virginia who serves as chair of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.

Mr. Chairman, thanks for joining us. So CNN has learned that the U.S. has intelligence that suggests to intelligence community officials that Russia has some sort of plan to produce a graphic propaganda video that would depict essentially a fake attack on itself, on Russia. And that the fear is that this could be used as a pretext to invade Ukraine. How sure are we have this intelligence? How reliable is it?

SEN. MARK WARNER (D-VA), INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN: Well, Jake, this is now, and I'm not going to comment on the specifics of potential tape or what have you, but this is the third time in the last 30 days where the Americans or British have leaned very forward in saying, gosh, if there is a coup in Ukraine, this is due to Russia. And then the British followed up with actually naming specific Ukrainians that might have been put in as president (ph). And now this other evidence that there could be a false flag operation.

I mean, this is never -- this kind of activity of this much forward leaning from the Intel community, I think is both effective and never been done before. And there's, -- you combine that with two other factors. One, the fact that the administration over the last five to six months has rallied the balance of NATO. I can assure you four or five months ago, other than the British, the rest of NATO were not on board with the seriousness of this threat. They have now flooded the zone, there's not a day that goes by that a Western leaders not in Kiev, with President Zelensky or somebody engaging the Russian leadership.

So you've got the board leading the IC (ph), flooding the zone diplomatically. And third, you have the evidence and worldwide media focus on Ukrainians, literally training in the event that there was a Russian invasion to provide an insurgency. I think all three of these things have, frankly, caught Putin a little bit off guard.

TAPPER: So, lawmakers received a closed door briefing today on the escalating situation in Ukraine. Your Republican counterpart, Marco Rubio, I believe came from that briefing saying that he was convinced that Russia is going to invade Ukraine and very soon. What's your response? Were you surprised by anything you learned today?

WARNER: There was nothing I heard today that I've not been hearing on a regular basis. I think the Russians are very poised. I think it's been in the public domain that something mid-February, they would probably have all the troops and additional supplies there. I don't think you're going to see Putin as he goes to Beijing in the coming days to open the Olympics to start something in the middle of the Olympics. And there is a back end because if you get into the middle of March, the ground starts to unfreezing the ability for Russian tanks to move into Ukraine is seriously stymied.

So we've got a very difficult next two plus weeks. But I don't think anyone knows whether Putin has made the ultimate decision.

And one of the things that I think we've all been concerned that Putin is so isolated himself, that we're not sure he was getting enough inputs. I think the fact that he is engaging not with just the Americans, he talked to the French President Macron the other day and getting this uniform commitment from NATO. And even Putin being isolated, I think can't miss some of the videos of Ukrainians training to be insurgents. I think that is hopefully created a pause. Now we have to figure out if there might be a path for some kind of exit ramp.

TAPPER: President Biden's deploying some 3,000 American service members to Europe, Eastern Europe largely. But President Putin has amassed more than 100,000 forces in Russia near Ukraine's borders plus 30,000 In Belarus. These 3,000 Americans, I understand that they buck up the spirits of NATO allies, Romania, Germany and Poland. But are they enough to deter Putin?

[17:05:18]

WARNER: Listen, we are not going to have troops on the ground in Ukraine. Ukraine is not a member of NATO. But we have been sending $600 million of aid last year, defensive aid 200 million additional aid. We've seen some of our other NATO allies, the British, the French, the -- actually the Spanish, the Danish and the Dutch have sent ships. There's not been this kind of united NATO front in recent memory. Now, will that be enough to stop the full forces of Russia if they choose to fully invade? Probably not.

But remember, this would be the first European war with literally millions of Ukrainians with cell phones videoing all of that and hopefully releasing it to the world. God willing, that won't happen. But that's not something that Putin has experienced in recent times. Combine that with, I think, the confidence building effect that Biden is sending the additional troops, obviously, they're not going to affect what Russia does directly with Ukraine, but it reinforces the fact that if this incursion were to somehow go beyond the geographic borders of Ukraine, we have Article Five commitments to the Baltic states to Romania, to Poland, to all of the 13 nations that make up NATO.

TAPPER: So you just said the Russians are poised? Did I hear that correctly?

WARNER: I'm saying this, Russia, you know, I think it is appropriate that the administration is taking -- gotten rid of the word imminent. I think there was clearly as the intelligence has been reported. There were indications that Russians might try a false flag operation. I think the constant pressure diplomatic and united front of NATO, I think the intelligence community for warning the Ukrainians in the world that if the Russians take these false flag actions don't believe it is a Ukrainian action or if there's a coup don't believe the Russians aren't behind it.

And I think the, frankly, the determination of the Ukrainian people in image after image showing that they're going to resist the Russians, even in those cities that maybe 15 years ago in the further east that had some pro-Russian sentiments.

TAPPER: So --

WARNER: I think that's all combined. TAPPER: Senator Todd Young, Republican of Indiana, said that he thought Germany is going to have to make a decision whether or not want -- whether or not they want to be, I'm paraphrasing here but it's along the lines, they can either be with the West and deal with our energy resources or be subjected to Putin's whims with the Nord Stream 2 pipeline. Do you agree? Is Germany going to have to make a decision here?

WARNER: Listen, I think we've all felt that Germany should not move forward with Nord Stream 2. And the fact that the Germans have, in effect slow down the bureaucracy in their own regulatory process, the Nord Stream 2 is literally months away from going live. And I do think the Germans will stand with the West should Putin invade Ukraine. That has been the result literally of months of work.

I think your viewers should remember the NATO that Biden inherited a year ago was pretty much in shambles after a four years of a Trump administration that, frankly, was degrading NATO, you know, downplaying its importance and its significance. This kind of crisis is what NATO was built for and I think it's responding.

Now again, the German Chancellor, I believe, is scheduled to come in the coming days to Washington. I don't think he would be coming to Washington if he wasn't going to stand with the alliance.

TAPPER: Democratic Senator Mark Warner of Virginia, thanks so much, sir. Appreciate it.

Coming up, Putin's curious relationship with the leader of China and their closely watched meeting on the sidelines of the Winter Olympic Games. What do they have cooked up there?

Plus, Ivanka Trump has the next move. How her pending response to the January 6 committee could send the investigation theoretically in a new direction. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:13:32]

TAPPER: In politics lead, today was supposed to be the first opportunity for Ivanka Trump to meet with the January 6 Select Committee investigating the deadly insurrection. But so far, that meeting has not been scheduled and it's still unclear if the former president's daughter will cooperate voluntarily. Let's get right to CNN's Paula Reid.

Paula, Ivanka Trump's cooperation at this point is completely up to her. The committee has not issued a subpoena for her, which under law would require her to appear and offer information. Where do things stand with the committee's negotiations?

PAULA REID, CNN SENIOR LEGAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jake, the committee chairman, Bennie Thompson, says of course they still want to talk to her in their original requests of her voluntary cooperation. They suggested she could come in today, tomorrow, anytime next week, but we've learned they're still in the process of trying to schedule a possible meeting.

Now in that original letter to Ivanka, the committee laid out in great detail exactly why they want to talk to her. They want to ask her questions about specific conversation she had with her father, and also asked him about his conduct and the days leading up to and on the day of the insurrection.

And, Jake, as you know, there is normally a back and forth and accommodation process to try to work out if witnesses can provide anything to lawmakers. But this is of course, not a normal situation for many reasons. Most of all, because we're talking about the daughter of a former president. And any sign that she will be willing to play ball in this investigation will be significant.

TAPPER: And Jeffrey Clark, the former Justice Department official who was pushing Trump's big lie, he met with the committee yesterday for nearly two hours. Tell us more about what happened at that meeting.

[17:15:04]

REID: Well, Jake, this is a perfect example of how you can get a witness to come and sit before the committee but doesn't always mean you're going to get any information. A source tells CNN that Clark made good on his promise to invoke the Fifth Amendment, invoking it over 100 times during this interview. And the source says that accounted for most of the questions that he was asked.

Now, as you noted, his interview lasted for nearly two hours. But most of the key witnesses their interviews in this investigation have lasted for close to six to eight. Will there be consequences? At this point it's unclear if the committee will move ahead with a criminal contempt referral to the Justice Department.

TAPPER: All right, Paula Reid, thanks so much.

Let's bring in our panel. And Abby, I want to start with the U.S. Special Forces raid in Syria earlier today. And the skepticism that journalists have regarding the Pentagon accounts of what happened. Take a listen to White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki who was asked for proof of the Pentagon's claims that the ISIS leader blew himself up and in the process, he tragically killed several children, not the U.S. military. Listen to how Psaki and then after that Ned Price from the State Department responded.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AYESHA RASCOE, NPR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: I mean, I know the U.S. has put out a statement that the, you know, they detonated the bomb themselves. But will the U.S. provide any evidence because there may be people that are skeptical of the events that took place and what happened to the civilians.

JEN PSAKI, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Skeptical of the U.S. military's assessments when they went and took out an ISIS terror -- the leader of ISIS?

RASCOE: Yes.

PSAKI: That they are not providing accurate information --

RASCOE: Yes.

PSAKI: -- and ISIS is providing accurate information?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: So that's Jen Psaki squaring off with NPR's Ayesha Rascoe, who's often at this table, suggesting that if you are skeptical of what the U.S. Pentagon claims, then you are on the side of ISIS. ISIS is providing accurate information.

Separately at the State Department earlier today, Ned Price was being pressed by the Associated Press' Matthew Lee about Russia. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NED PRICE, STATE DEPARTMENT SPOKESPERSON: If you doubt the credibility of the U.S. government, of the British government, of other governments and want to, you know, find solace and information that the Russians are putting out, that is that is for you to do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: OK. So, Abby, the reason I do that is because what the Biden administration is doing here is saying to journalists whose jobs are to be skeptical. And let us also note that U.S. intelligence and the Pentagon have not only gotten things wrong before, they have openly lied to the American people before, then you have Psaki and Price, saying, oh, so you side with our enemies?

ABBY PHILLIP, CNN ANCHOR, INSIDE POLITICS SUNDAY: Yes. I mean, come on, we all know that these types of statements require scrutiny. Because frankly, I mean, if we're being generous, there is such a thing as the fog of war. Sometimes you believe something has happened when it has not. And so it is the job of us as journalists to ask the questions.

And these entities, government entities, often go back and then they find that what they told us, for example, about that other Afghanistan strike after during the withdrawal, that didn't turn out to have been executed the way that they said it was, and that happened just in the last 12 months. So, the idea that this is somehow out of the question, or out of the ordinary to ask these kinds of questions to probe on these issues, especially when we're talking about the deaths of children is ridiculous.

TAPPER: What was your response when you saw this?

SEUNG MIN KIM, WHITE HOUSE REPORTER, "THE WASHINGTON POST": Well, I think it's a lot with what Abby said. I mean, there is a history of the U.S. government, either intentionally or not, misleading the American public when it comes to these serious military action. So it is the job of journalists on behalf of the public, on behalf of the viewers and the readers to provide evidence or to ask for evidence and to ask for backup.

So the questioning from, you know, our colleague Ayesha Rascoe was, I thought, terrific to speak for her. And I think it's just basically part of our job. And the more that the public understands just kind of the process of what we do and what our mandate is and what we're charged with doing, I think it's just better for the public, for people to understand.

PHILLIP: And we ask these questions of the Trump administration --

KIM: Exactly.

TAPPER: Of course.

PHILLIP: -- as well.

KIM: As you know. Yes.

TAPPER: Well, let's talk about, because we have two communication professionals here with Republicans and Democrats, what do you think?

ALYSSA FARAH GRIFFIN, FORMER WHITE HOUSE DIRECTOR OF STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS UNDER TRUMP: To Abby's point about the fog of war I was at the Pentagon after we had a significant strike at al-Assad and there were -- we said there were no casualties at the time. And afterward, we ended up having over 100 cases of traumatic brain injury, because things change, more information comes out. And to double down that dogmatically and say, if you don't believe initial reports, you're on the side of our adversaries is a position that's going to come back to bite them.

TAPPER: Paul, is it not the definition of patriotism for journalists to say, OK, the Pentagon or the intelligence community is saying this, prove it? Where's the proof?

PAUL BEGALA, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Absolutely. And it's a definition of patriotism for Jen Psaki and Ned Price to say, hey, I backed my guys and gals at the Pentagon, if you don't like that, tough luck. This is how the system works.

GRIFFIN: One thing I would note, though, that some of the reports were from the White Helmets, an NGO group within Syria, saying --

BEGALA: Right.

GRIFFIN: -- there were civilian casualties. So it wasn't even just a U.S. assessment.

[17:20:01]

BEGALA: But Jen did not say if you question me you're on the side of. I shouldn't say anything like that, we got a lot of that from the Bush administration when people like me when people like me --

TAPPER: After 9/11, sure.

BEGALA: -- that war in Iraq. But that's not -- this is the normal to and fro. One of the iron laws I had, I bet you thought of this, Alyssa, it was the initial reports are always wrong. You just don't know how and where. Be real careful if you're the government side so that's what --

(CROSSTALK)

BEGALA: I have no problem with Ayesha's question.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

BEGALA: None whatsoever. I don't have problem with Jen's answer. This is freedom. This is democracy.

TAPPER: But what is Psaki is saying that the -- that there's only two sources of information on the ground.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Right.

TAPPER: ISIS or the U.S. military. There happened to have been, and we just saw this in our with Damon's piece, you know, she's in Istanbul, but the piece was done in Syria. There are other people who live there besides the U.S. military and ISIS, there are civilians in Syria.

BEGALA: But it's not far-fetched. In fact, it's long standing practice for ISIS to blow themselves up and kill innocents, even their own family members. I think --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think we saw it to Baghdad.

PHILLIP: And I don't think anybody is questioning that.

BEGALA: Right.

PHILLIP: It's just a question of --

TAPPER: Where's the proof?

PHILLIP: -- where's the proof?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Right.

BEGALA: Right.

PHILLIP: And just the government have a responsibility to provide it when there are unintended consequences (INAUDIBLE), whether they --

BEGALA: I think they do when they will.

PHILLIP: -- were caused by the United States government.

GRIFFIN: Well, in this skepticism as a result of the fallout of Afghanistan when there was that strike where it ended up being wrong and it wasn't the target that they said they hit. So, there is more scrutiny now and the Biden administration has to be ready for it.

TAPPER: There's a long history in this country that long predates the existence of everybody at this table, except for me and Paul, of the U.S. government lying to the American people. Lying for the right reasons, maybe, or because they have the wrong information or they're backing their guys. But it is our job to challenge.

Anyway, let's move on. Alyssa, today, the President Biden met with the New York City Police Department after a pair of officers were killed in the line of duty. Biden's trying to turn the focus from crime to combating gun violence.

Last hour, Cedric Richmond, one of the President's top advisors told me that Republicans are to cozied up to the NRA, don't want to get anything done. Is there any path forward on preventing gun violence on further gun restrictions that could keep them out of the hands of criminals?

GRIFFIN: It's a great question. I think it's a politically savvy move of Biden to tackle gun violence rather than going after crime rates in cities. The 12 cities with the highest rates of violent crime are all Democrat led cities. So he doesn't have necessarily an immediate solution on what's going wrong in these communities. But widely across the board, Independents are where Democrats are on gun violence. So I think this could be a smart midterm strategy.

That said, I think we've seen the stolen House anytime we've tried to do even minor reforms around, you know, around the Second Amendment. So, I'm not sure what the legislative outcome looks like. But if he does something at the executive level, perhaps that could it be (ph).

TAPPER: Biden is also pushing more police, more funding --

BEGALA: Right.

TAPPER: -- for police. And Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the progressive congresswoman from New York City, told "The New York Times," quote, "We risk reverting back to a 90s-era, quote unquote, "tough on crime" rhetoric, where policies may be rolled out to make it look like we're being responsive to public safety, but actually could potentially be making those issues worse, even if they might play well politically."

She, you know, I'm not going to put words in her mouth, but perhaps the three strikes in your outlaw is one of the things she's talking about. That's a lot of people think that was bad policy.

BEGALA: Right.

TAPPER: What do you think?

BEGALA: I think mass incarceration is not the answer. We did too much of that in the '90s. The crime bill Joe Biden wrote and Bill Clinton signed, did have incentives for states to do it. It actually didn't raise the federal incarceration rate at all, but states did. And we encourage that and that was wrong. And it's important for people like me who participate in that technology.

But what Joe Biden said, what Congressman Richmond said, I listened to your interview, is really progressive. It's community policing.

By the way, there was a poll in the Bronx, which is part of Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez's district, at 81 percent, the citizens there said they want more cops. This is a false dichotomy to say we have to choose between civil rights and public safety. The stuff that Cedric was talking about, the President was talking about, called focus deterrence where you engage.

City of Oakland did this in 2012. They had a five-year program called Operation Ceasefire. They found out half the murders in that city were committed by 700 guys. That's it.

So we don't have to mass incarcerate, we just have to target and engage people before they become criminals. So, let's try to have fewer gunman as well as fewer guns.

TAPPER: You have my vote. Thank you all. Appreciate it.

Coming up next, airplane mode anger, lawmakers fired up over a high speed rollout that caused some sky high confusion. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:28:43]

TAPPER: In our tech lead today, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin wants to kick the United States manufacturing of hypersonic weapons into hyper drive as North Korea and China boldly test their new own hypersonic technology. Secretary Austin is now urging the nation's largest defense contractors to kick it up a notch and build the weapons which can fly five times the speed of sound making them incredibly difficult to detect.

CNN's Space and Defense Correspondent Kristin Fisher joins us now.

And Kristin, exactly how far behind North Korea and China is the U.S. when it comes to this technology?

KRISTIN FISHER, CNN SPACE AND DEFENSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, U.S. Space Force General David Thompson put it very bluntly, he said that the U.S. has a lot of catching up to do very quickly. And that, you know, the U.S. hypersonic program is really in its infancy that the Chinese and the Russians are much farther ahead with that technology.

And so the purpose of today's meeting was really to encourage all of these major defense contractors and companies to pick up the pace, to really light a fire under that industry. And I spoke with one of the CEOs who attended this meeting and he said that there were about 14 CEOs in the room and he noted just how rare it is for a defense secretary to hold a meeting like that with top CEOs be at virtually.

And the CEO that I spoke with said that Austin's closing message was that, you know, this hypersonics, they are absolutely serious, we need to focus on this. And he said, quote, "We are distracted now by Russia, but China is the real threat."

TAPPER: And how much money is this going to cost the United States?

FISHER: A lot of money. The Fiscal Year '22 budget, 2022 budget, committed about 3.8 billion to hypersonic research. But the real issue here, it's not just funding this technology, it's also funding the infrastructure to test this technology. And one of the big issues that came up at this meeting, according to the CEO that I spoke with, was hypersonic wind tunnels, to test hypersonic glide vehicles.

And right now the U.S. only has about a handful of them while China has 12. And they're building about one every six months. And that also kind of plays into another big problem here, which is what the U.S. military says is this fear of failure. The U.S. has tested nine hypersonic tests over the last five years while the Chinese have tested hundreds.

TAPPER: All right, Kristin Fisher, good to have you in studio, first time.

FISHER: I know.

TAPPER: Nice to see you.

FISHER: Good to see you.

TAPPER: Now to a technology crisis averted, which still has some lawmakers to angry. Today on Capitol Hill, House members demanded answers about the botched rollout of high speed 5G cell service last month, which caused some disruptions in airports due to regulators fears 5G signals might interfere with some pilots landing instruments. Lawmakers grilled the FAA administrator and blasted the Federal Communications Commission.

CNN's Aviation Correspondent Pete Muntean joins us now live from Reagan National Airport. So Pete, did lawmakers find out who was responsible for this seemingly preventable rather obvious screw up?

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: Well, really a lot of finger pointing in this House hearing today, Jake. And really two sides argued by lawmakers. One, that the FCC really did not understand the risks associated with this 5G rollout. And two, that the FAA really did not voice its concerns about aviation safety early enough.

You know, it wasn't until the 11th hour of this rollout that those two industries really started working together and that the cell phone companies agreed to slow the 5G rollout near airports. That was the target of concern. You know, House Chair Peter DeFazio, he heads this House hearing and he's from Oregon. He says that really it's not acceptable for agencies to have conflict like this. Here's what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. PETER DEFAZIO (D-OR), CHAIRMAN TRANSPORTATION & INFRASTRUCTURE COMMITTEE: Everybody else has taken measures to protect aviation, but we didn't until the last minute and it's a temporary agreement and something has to be worked out long term in the next six months. We cannot have conflicting industries. Having a dropped call is way less serious than having a dropped airplane out of the sky.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MUNTEAN: Now the head of the FCC was not at this hearing today. She had a scheduling conflict. The head of the FAA says it is continuing to work with those cell phone companies. He says that there could be a long-term solution sometime soon, but probably not until next year. Jake.

TAPPER: Pete, lawmakers also wondered if people's personal cell phones are making the problem worse. So is it actually critical for passengers to switch their phones to airplane mode?

MUNTEAN: It's a good question because airplane mode has been required on commercial flight since about 2013. But the FAA says the real concern here is the 5G towers. They put up way more possible signal interference than a cell phone possibly could. The analogy is like this. A tower is like a fire hose. A phone is like a garden hose, Jake.

TAPPER: All right. Pete Muntean at Reagan National. Thanks so much.

Why some Republicans may get shut down and shut out if they try to push back on whomever Biden ends up nominating to the Supreme Court. That's next. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:37:40]

TAPPER: In our politics today, the top Democrat and Republican in the Senate meeting behind closed doors today to discuss their upcoming agenda and no doubt at the top of the list for Majority Leader Chuck Schumer confirming President Biden's first pick to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Let's get straight to CNN's Manu Raju who's on Capitol Hill for us. And Manu, there's a growing split on the Republican side about how to handle this nomination.

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, no question about it. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell is counseling his members to take a measured approach to this nomination fight. Vet the nominee, make your points but avoid the blistering and personal attacks and avoid the knockout down, drag out fight that we have seen in Supreme Court battles that -- in the past several go rounds.

And one big reason why Republicans believe they are winning this battle to take back control of Congress in the November midterms, they do not want to distract focus away from their message which is the economic message as they go after the Biden administration. This is what Republican John Thune, the number two Senate Republican told me yesterday. He said, "I think it's not probably going to be the kind of event that's going to drive people to the polls," referring to the confirmation fight.

He said, "We think that the people that are going to determine who the majority is in the House and the Senate in 2022 are going to be looking at issues like the economy and inflation and the border and crime in cities and things like that." A pretty remarkable comment there given the last two presidential elections have been fought in large part over Supreme Court vacancies being a driving issues in those campaigns.

But, Jake, not everyone in the Republican conference agrees. Josh Hawley who sits on the Judiciary Committee told me yesterday that they need to maybe show the Senate is that why the Senate is important, show that to voters and fight this nomination. Other conservatives also making that case. So that's going to be the challenge for Republican leaders, battle the nomination that will probably won't change the ideological balance of the court, but don't go too far.

TAPPER: So it's a 50-50 Senate and Democrats are now down a key vote because Senator Ben Ray Lujan from New Mexico is recovering from a stroke. What does a realistic timeline look for the confirmation process given that they need Lujan there?

RAJU: They do. And the likelihood at the moment is that early spring seems to be the time in which they can get this nomination confirmed because Joe Biden is expected to make that pick by the end of this month, and then they expect about a 40-day confirmation process. So that could potentially put it into April or so before we see those key votes.

[17:40:06]

Now that also, Jake, assumes that there's not going to be hiccups in the confirmation process, nothing that changes trajectory that everything goes OK with Ben Ray Lujan's returned, which is expected in four to six, six weeks time. And they keep all their votes together in a key moment.

Earlier today, Jake, Joe Manchin who's that, of course, the Key West Virginia democratic swing vote told me he likes all of the potential swing -- people on the shortlist, he calls them all good candidates. So Democrats at the moment are confident they have the votes. Jake.

TAPPER: All right, Manu Raju, thank you so much.

What the Olympic experience is really like as China tries to seal off athletes and teams from everything and everyone else. We're going live to Beijing next. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:45:14]

TAPPER: Time for our series behind China's wall, in which we attempt to go behind the fanfare and the glamour of the Olympic Games. The Chinese government hopes to use the games to distract the world from its crackdowns on freedoms. Crimes against humanity, and genocide. Today Russian President Vladimir Putin, one of the few world leaders headed to Beijing is touting his relationship with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, saying the pair are, quote, good friends who, quote, hold largely the same views on addressing the world's promises and with the world's problems, unquote.

CNN's David Culver joins us now live from Beijing. David, there are growing ties between these two leaders as relations with the West deteriorate for both countries.

DAVID CULVER, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: And Jake, we look now at two countries that are increasingly assertive and determined and expanding their reach bit on land, at sea or even in space. And in doing so, they are motivated in showing weaknesses in democracies and challenging the current world order.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CULVER (voice-over): A mesmerizing opening ceremony, expected to be attended by two strongman leaders. Chinese President Xi Jinping will soon be hosting his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, as their country stands shoulder to shoulder in defiance of the West. Despite lingering disputes over issues such as economic interest in the Middle East, Beijing and Moscow managed to see past those differences and focus instead on one common adversary, the United States, which has launched a diplomatic boycott of the games over Beijing's human rights record.

And as tensions rise between Russia and NATO over a possible Russian invasion of Ukraine, Beijing has publicly backed the Kremlin. In a recent phone call with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi stressed that, "Russia's reasonable security concerns should be taken seriously and resolved."

(on-camera): This will be the 38th time that President Xi and President Putin have met face to face since President Xi took power here back in 2013.

(voice-over): These frequent interactions, a sign of increasingly close bilateral ties, despite how different the two leaders are. The images tell it all. The pair in 2018 happily sampling together a traditional Chinese pancake. A few months later, they made a Russian version of the dish, complete with caviar and vodka.

They visited with China's iconic pandas the following year. And took in an ice hockey game. Later, basking in a sunset boat tour. The cozy China-Russia relationship not stopping the U.S. from trying to sway China on the Ukraine crisis.

VICTORIA NULAND, STATE DEPARTMENT: We are calling on Beijing to use its influence with Moscow to urge diplomacy.

CULVER (voice-over): But analysts say Beijing sees little benefit to side with the West.

DANIEL RUSSEL, VP OF INTERNATIONAL SECURITY AND DIPLOMACY, ASIA SOCIETY POLICY INSTITUTE: What Putin and Xi Jinping have in common here is actually the desire to undercut U.S. credibility to drive a wedge between Washington and its allies.

CULVER (voice-over): Other democracies and U.S. allies like Taiwan, will be watching closely. As China steps up its military activities across the Taiwan Strait.

RUSSEL: If the people in Taiwan saw that, despite all of Washington's efforts and all of NATO's tough talk that they didn't succeed in deterring Putin, they're going to ask themselves, can we, on Taiwan, really count on the United States in a crisis?

CULVER (voice-over): After the U.S.'s disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan, Ukraine presents the latest test on the U.S. capability to maintain global peace and security. And the outcome may further convince China and Russia of an emerging new world order that both have long sought.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CULVER: And Jake, even before President Putin's arrival here in Beijing, state media pushing the strong friendship between the pair, even sharing a letter from Putin to the Chinese people, and blaming countries like the U.S. for politicizing sports, even as these two leaders are expected to use the optics of the opening ceremony in just a few hours to take a strong geopolitical stance. Jake?

TAPPER: Yes, two authoritarians coming together at the Olympics. David Culver in Beijing with the latest installment of behind China's wall, thank you.

Turning to our sports lead now, the opening ceremony of the Beijing Winter Olympic Games is just hours away. The show will likely look very different from the celebration. China held for the start of the Summer Games 14 years ago. Report suggests that some athletes may boycott the ceremony and a show of solidarity with the many victims of the Chinese government's human rights abuses.

Joining us now is Adam Rippon, U.S. Olympic bronze medalist in the 2018 games in South Korea. He's in Beijing now coaching Olympic hopeful Mariah Bell. Good to see you, Adam. Thanks for joining us.

[17:50:01]

So, I do want to ask, the Chinese government has warned athletes about censorship laws they have in China. They don't want any political comments during the games. You've generally speaking, you've never been one to remain quiet. Have

you heard from athletes who are concerned about these limits on their speech?

ADAM RIPPON, U.S. OLYMPIC BRONZE MEDAL FIGURE SKATER (2018): You know, I think like, in every games, there's going to be some sort of like political talk. It's like, you can't avoid it at an Olympics because you are on this world stage where everyone is watching. What I really hope with these games is that like, there's so much attention brought to these issues about human rights, that it does put pressure on the Chinese government to really address it.

Because I know that, you know, when you think about it, you're like, why should the games even, you know, why should you award the games to a country that has these things going on? But I think you just hope that like, the pressure is something that they will address it because there's so much attention on it.

TAPPER: The Beijing Games are being hosted inside a bubble with a bunch of COVID restrictions, daily temperature checks, et cetera. How different has this experience been from when you competed just four years ago?

RIPPON: So, well, when I competed four years ago, there was no COVID. So I was just -- I was literally spreading droplets to anyone who was around me, Free Willy. And then I went to Tokyo, and I was working in Tokyo. And, you know, it was very strict. It -- you know, we felt very safe.

Here in Beijing, it's even stricter. So I feel like the athletes feel pretty safe. When you get to the airport here, there's two different COVID tests that you take. You take like an oral swab and a nasal swab. And, Jake, I don't know if you've ever felt like the pressure of feeling like you're about to lose your uvula. But I did feel like that was going to happen when I took the oral test.

And then when I took the nasal one, she went so deep into my brain, that when she pulled it out, there was like -- it was -- listen, this is CNN so I'm going to share the real details. There was blood coming out. And I just -- I want to share with you that I was negative. So -- but at what cost, I guess.

TAPPER: I'm glad you were negative. I've never had that experience, either of the ones you described.

RIPPON: I wouldn't wish it on you either.

TAPPER: Well, thank you. I wouldn't wish it again on you. I mean, this must be impacting the mood inside the Olympic Village.

RIPPON: You know, I think here at the Olympics that COVID, especially in like these sports that are here right now, they've lived in these COVID times for the past two years. And to be here at an Olympics is something that you dream of. You know, you can't dream of the circumstances and you can't change them. But I know for the athletes in Tokyo, they were so happy to even just have an Olympics after it was postponed.

And I think the athletes here are just so focused on what their job is when they come here. And that's their main focus. And their main focus is having like the best experience that they can and these athletes will. They showed up prepared. They're ready to go.

TAPPER: You're in Beijing, as we noted, because you're coaching U.S. Olympic figure skater Mariah Bell. Her family and supporters are not able to be there with her. How is she doing? Is she doing OK without her family and supporters? RIPPON: Yes, she's doing great. So in the ladies event, you know, it can be a really young event. There's a lot of teenagers and Mariah, my student, obviously, I have the oldest girl here because I was like, listen, being old is amazing. And when I say old, I do mean that she's 25. And she is the oldest female skater from the U.S. to come to an Olympic Games in 94 years.

And if that doesn't make you want to just drop that on the spot, I don't know what will. But she's great. And she's having the time of her life.

TAPPER: Adam, you are a delight to have on the show. We are going to be celebrating. I'm going to be rooting especially hard for Mariah because of you and your celebration of her. Thanks so much. Best of luck to you and to Mariah, of course.

RIPPON: Thanks, Jake. Thanks so much.

TAPPER: Adam Rippon in Beijing, thanks so much.

So as if the melting hair dye wasn't embarrassing enough for Rudy Giuliani. His latest moment in front of the cameras. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:53:57]

TAPPER: Topping our pop culture lead today. It ain't over until the big lie pushing disgrace lawyer sings. That's how that saying goes, right? A source tells CNN last night, two hosts of "The Masked Singer," game show on Fox, Ken Jeong and Robin Thicke walked off stage in protest during a taping after Rudy Giuliani was revealed to be one of the masked contestants.

"The Masked Singer," for those who don't know, is a popular Fox reality show where contestants perform in full costume, singing and dancing like the one you're seeing here from the previous season up until the judges give them the boot and then their identities are revealed. Ken Jong and Robin Thicke, if not commented, publicly memo to ABC. I mean, I have an idea for the next season of "The Bachelor," a contestant who's eager to go on such shows.

Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter at JakeTapper. You can tweet the show at TheLeadCNN. And if you ever miss an episode of THE LEAD, you can listen to THE LEAD wherever you get your podcasts. How about that?

Our coverage now continues with one Mr. Wolf Blitzer who I believe is right next door in "THE SITUATION ROOM." I'll see you tomorrow.