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The Lead with Jake Tapper

Ukrainian Forces Brace For Russian Attack On Front Lines; W.H. Approves Pentagon Plan For U.S. Troops To Help Americans Evacuate From Ukraine If Russia Invades; Trump: "McConnell Does Not Speak For The Republican Party"; McConnell & McCarthy Publicly Split Over RNC Censure; Protests Block Busy U.S.-Canadian Border Crossings, Snarl City Streets; Misleading Photos, False Tweets Spread Online About "Freedom Convoy" Protests; Sources: Biden Admin Has Until End Of Feb To Save Iran Nuke Deal; 21 Countries Sign Statement Accusing China Of Press Freedom Abuses; U.S. Born Olympians Competing For China Facing Scrutiny. 5-6p ET

Aired February 09, 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]

ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (voice- over): This is Avdiivka, where many of these Ukrainian troops who are mostly young men have been fighting Russian back forces on this cold and desolate front. They're eager to show us how they've been living and fighting here in a conflict involving Russia that has been largely forgotten, but which has taken over 14,000 lives in the past eight years, according to the United Nations.

Ivan has been here the whole time. Like the other soldiers here, he says they're confident they could face a new Russian invasion.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Of course, we ready for some bad situation and basically wait here.

MARQUARDT (on camera): Do you think that will happen? This bad situation?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't know because I don't know what's in the head of the guys in that territory.

MARQUARDT (on camera): But for you, the war has already started.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Of course.

MARQUARDT (voice-over): We're taken to the farthest point forward, where sandbags and tires are piled high. Then,

(on camera): So there was just a burst of what sounded like automatic gunfire. We are just 70 meters we are told from the fighters on the other side of the frontline.

(voice-over): We're rushed away or escorts keen for us to see what happens, but not too closely.

(on camera): Hearing this gunfire and being so close to this front line, you can't help but think that even if diplomacy succeeds in preventing Russia from invading Ukraine, yet again, this fighting which has been raging since the last time Russia invaded Ukraine will almost certainly continue.

(voice-over): NATO leaders say that ending the fighting already happening here is a critical part of preventing further Russian aggression. With NATO so far refusing to send troops to Ukraine to fight, Ukraine insists it needs more help.

OLEKSANDR TKACHENKO, UKRAINIAN MINISTER OF CULTURE AND INFORMATION: But the important issue what they need is additional weapons assistance from the west, from our western. Financial assistance. That's what we need to make sure that we will defend not only peace in this country, but peace in Europe.

MARQUARDT (voice-over): As of to punctuate their point, more gunfire rings out.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

MARQUARDT: And Jake, Ukraine did receive another shipment of weapons today, this time from the United Kingdom. But I spoke with two senior Ukrainian generals today who said that they desperately need critical air defense systems to offset Russian air superiority. The commander of Ukraine's ground forces says that he has made this request clear to the Biden administration. He said they have not gotten a strong yes or no answer, they have not gotten a clear answer. But they do hope, Jake, that their needs will soon be met.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: All right. Alex Marquardt in Ukraine, thank you so much.

Let's discuss this all with retired General Wesley Clark, the NATO Supreme Allied Commander from 1997 to 2000.

General, good to see you. I like to start with your reaction to Alex Marquardt's reporting from the frontlines. A good reminder that this conflicts been going on for quite some time.

GEN. WESLEY CLARK (RET.), FORMER NATO SUPREME ALLIED COMMANDER: You've been at ash. And a lot of Ukrainians volunteered their armed forces, and I'm sure they're -- and of course, they're on standby if they're needed to return to uniform or to fight again. So, it's been an experience that strengthened Ukraine.

Putin meant to bleed Ukraine, but he misread the situation. Instead, Ukraine has strengthened itself, based on the support that Putin is given to these so called separatists in the Donbas.

TAPPER: The White House has approved a plan for American forces in Poland to try to help Americans who might try to evacuate Ukraine if indeed Russia invades. But those U.S. forces are not authorized to enter Ukraine for breaks out. How different might this all look from what happened in Afghanistan?

CLARK: Well, it's too early to really do these comparisons, Jake. But, of course, the idea that they won't enter Ukraine is absolutely appropriate right now. But the Russian should be concerned because America is a powerful country. It is somewhat unpredictable. In 1950 when the North Koreans invaded South Korea, the United States was supposed to not do anything and yet the United States did do something. We reacted strongly and became engaged in that conflict.

So, Russia can't be sure what NATO is going to do. The situation is unpredictable. Suppose there -- the Russians come in quickly, it's over in a day, there's no appreciable civilian suffering, OK, OK. But suppose it isn't over in a day, suppose you get the casualty reports and they've used chemical weapons or something and they're brutalizing people, the outcry in NATO countries may demand action, at that point something may change.

[17:05:02]

So, Russia can't know for sure. And this is part of what should deter Vladimir Putin from executing this attack.

TAPPER: President Biden said this week that Americans in Ukraine would be wise to leave, but he did not order an evacuation. Do you think he should?

CLARK: I think it's a little too early for that. Based on all of the information we're getting, everyone seems to be quite confident that we've got another few days before Putin has to make a decision.

You have to look at this as a sort of three phase Russian operation, Jake. First phase is build up the forces, take whatever diplomatic concessions you can get, try to split NATO, try to show the United States as being weak and so forth. That hasn't worked so far. But he's continuing to torque up the pressure and Ukrainians are beginning to take this very, very seriously, this threat of an attack.

Second phase would be, if he decides he hasn't got enough, if he looked at China and says, Xi Jinping might think I'm weak if I don't attack, maybe he makes the attack. And then, you know, we don't know what kind of an attack it will be, could be all estimates, could be a more limited attack, could be phased to gauge with NATO reaction. And then, that's when the evacuations and the assistance to the evacuees is going to be critical.

And then there's a third phase. And that third phase is what happens after that. Presumably at some point he's going to say, oh, we're getting a ceasefire, or please help us in the violence here. And then, of course, we want to end violence, but that's when the sanctions have to kick in.

And that will be another whole struggle because Putin may be betting that based on his intelligence from allied governments that they're going to have a hard time giving up their gas and oil from Russia and other financial transactions that they have. So, this is a very complicated, difficult, long process.

TAPPER: In the last 24 hours, Russia has added 2,000 combat forces to border areas near Ukraine, more Russian warships are moving into the Black Sea. Russia's prepping military acts exercises in multiple locations. And yet the Kremlin is saying that Russia is facing an unprecedented threat from NATO.

CLARK: Yes, well, that's all that's all propaganda. You know, that all the promises not to attack and all that and saying they won't do anything, and this NATO threat is all propaganda. And so as, you know, as an analyst, I understand this, I hope the American people understand it, that this isn't real.

Putin certainly doesn't feel threatened by NATO. But this is part of his strategy is to pork up the pressure and try to break the cohesion of NATO or so discouraged President Zelensky that he finally just says, oh, I give up, I quit, I will never want to be a NATO. We can't subject the people of Ukraine to this.

But I don't think President Zelensky is going to quit. I don't think the Ukrainians are going to turn away from their desire to be part of the west. And so, I think Mr. Putin has backed himself into a corner.

If he does attack, he's going to become the equivalent of a rogue nation, a war criminal. It will be worse than what we think North Korea might do to South Korea. He'll be in should be treated as a war criminal.

Aggressive war is against international law. He has no right to do this. It's not about power politics, it's not about all nations do these things. No, it's very clearly against international law. He's playing the part of a criminal right now in the stretch.

TAPPER: Former Supreme Allied Commander of NATO, General Wesley Clark. Thank you so much, sir. Good to see you.

Coming up, the same party, the same Congress, but these two Republican leaders are definitely not on the same page when it comes to January 6. Then, tough choices for some Olympic athletes who grew up in the U.S. but are competing for a different country. That's ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:13:19]

TAPPER: Topping our politics lead, a tale of two Republican leaders in two vastly different directions they're trying to take their party. Today, the House's top Republican, Kevin McCarthy, once again defended the Republican National Committee after it censured two Republicans, Congressman Adam Kinzinger and Congresswoman Liz Cheney, and seemingly referred to the January 6 attack as "legitimate political discourse," that's a quote.

But Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, blatantly condemned to the RNC's actions. And as CNN's Manu Raju reports for us now, this disagreement is creating another split in the party, which is gearing up for the midterms.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE) MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell this week tried to conveyed the reality about January 6.

SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY), MINORITY LEADER: With a violent insurrection for the purpose of trying to prevent the peaceful transfer of power after a legitimately certified election from one administration to the next.

RAJU (voice-over): But many in his party won't have it.

(on camera): Do you agree with the Republican leaders characterization what happened on January 6?

REP. MICHAEL CLOUD (R-TX): It was mostly a peaceful protest.

SEN. TOMMY TUBERVILLE (R-AL): I don't know that. I would go that far. But it was something that we were not proud of.

RAJU (on camera): But not a violent insurrection?

TUBERVILLE: Oh, it's violent. I just don't -- I wouldn't call it insurrection. Violent protests.

RAJU (voice-over): Senator Ted Cruz, who used to refer to the events of January 6 as a --

SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX): Violent terrorist attack.

RAJU (voice-over): -- until getting blowback from the right, rejected the GOP leaders' comments.

CRUZ: The word insurrection is politically charged propaganda. I think it is a mistake for Republicans to repeat the political propaganda of Democrats and the corporate media.

[17:15:02]

RAJU (voice-over): The debate was ripped open last week when the Republican National Committee took the unprecedented step of censuring two Republicans, Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger for joining with Democrats to investigate the attack. Adding to the controversy was language in the resolution saying the two Republicans were persecuting citizens who engaged in legitimate political discourse.

House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy defended the RNC and said the resolution should have specified a January 6 investigators had subpoenaed some RNC members who were in Florida at the time of the attack.

REP. KEVIN MCCARTHY (R-CA), MINORITY LEADER: I think it had they explained out what they were talking to this wouldn't be controversial at all, because they weren't referring to people who have broken into this building. Everyone understood --

RAJU (on camera): Do you support it? MCCARTHY: The RNC put out their resolution. I think they have a right to do their resolution and what they wanted.

RAJU (voice-over): RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel also tried to clean it up, saying she condemns all acts of violence, and the probe has gone beyond its scope, pointing to a subpoena sent to an RNC member who was not in D.C. on January 6. But there's a reason why some RNC members have been subpoenaed. The committee is looking into allegations that individuals tried to submit fake electoral certificates in seven states that Joe Biden won.

REP. DON BACON (R-NE): I don't think it was a wise statement on the RNC's part. Violence is always not legitimate. Their statement put us backwards. I don't think it's right.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

RAJU: Now, just moments ago, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell responded to the conservatives who were downplaying the notion that this was a violent insurrection, saying it to us, "This is pretty simple. We are in the middle of a national crime wave. The Republican Party is a pro-police, tough-on-crime party. And I'm a pro-police, tough-on-crime Republican across the board." Jake.

TAPPER: All right. Manu Raju on Capitol Hill for us, thank you so much.

Let's discuss. Alice, this afternoon we also got a statement from Donald Trump about Mitch McConnell saying, quote, "Mitch McConnell does not speak for the Republican Party and does not represent the views of the vast majority of its voters." Is he right?

ALICE STEWART, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Look, he also called McConnell old crow, which actually is pretty good bourbon. But I'll say this, look, I think rational Republicans of the Republican Party view this all the same way. They view that we had free and fair elections. They view that Donald Trump lost. They view January 6 as an insurrection, and it was not legitimate political discourse.

I think the Republican Party, including Donald Trump, does a tremendous disservice when we are engaged in the circular firing squad and more focused on the big lie than opening up the big tent when we should be taking it to the Democrats. We should be taking it to them on their policies with regard to the economy, with regard to inflation, and --

TAPPER: Sure.

STEWART: -- in the border. But here's the thing, they're more focused on going against Liz Cheney and Mitch McConnell, our opponents are Nancy Pelosi and Joe Biden.

TAPPER: OK. I don't disagree with what you're saying, but I'll bring it to you Powers. The question is, who actually represents Republican Party voters these days? Is it Mitch McConnell or is it Donald Trump?

KRISTEN POWERS, COLUMNIST, USA TODAY: Well --

TAPPER: I mean, she talked about rational Republicans.

POWERS: I was going to say --

TAPPER: What percentage of the Republican Party?

POWERS: A large percentage of Republicans unfortunately do believe the big lie, right? So, I think it's probably fair to say that rational people don't believe that, but a lot of Republican voters do believe that.

And so, I would actually argue that Donald Trump probably speaks a little bit more for the voters, at least the base of the party, but Mitch McConnell also represents the Republican Party. Obviously, he's the leader in the Senate. And I think he clearly believes that it's time to move past Trump and that he doesn't want to pick fights with him. And what Alice just said, which is the Republican Party should be focused on attacking Joe Biden not attacking each other.

TAPPER: Yes. Kasie, a few weeks or months ago, Marjorie Taylor Greene said to Steve Bannon that they represent the base of the Republican Party. That they're not fringe, they represent the base of the Republican Party. Here's Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene talking, I think earlier today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE (R-GA): Not only do we have the D.C. jail, which is the DC gulag, but now we have Nancy Pelosi is gazpacho police spying on members of Congress, spying on the legislative work that we do, spying on our staff and spying on American citizens that want to come talk to their representatives. This government has turned into something it was never --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: All right. So, that's enough of that. But I mean, I guess --

KASIE HUNT, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: That's (INAUDIBLE) Gazpacho.

TAPPER: The Gazpacho police. I assume she meant the Gestapo police --

HUNT: I do, too.

TAPPER: -- which is another reference that would be an offensive one that she makes inappropriately.

HUNT: Maybe she did it on purpose.

TAPPER: Maybe.

HUNT: Boy, say the accusations.

TAPPER: Right. No. Nobody can accuse her of using anti-Semitic tropes or Holocaust belittling tropes that she is referring to, the Gazpacho Police.

[17:20:01]

HUNT: So I guess she's belittling the Gestapo by calling them Gazpacho, who knows. Good point.

TAPPER: By the way in San Francisco they could very well have a Gazpacho Police, just as a separate issue if it's too warm.

HUNT: What are the import, export rules around gazpacho today, tell me?

TAPPER: I guess my question is, why are people siding with that? Like you have a choice here. What is the incentive structure where somebody would say, yes, Marjorie Taylor Greene side of this, not Liz Cheney, that -- I want to be on the Gazpacho Police side of this.

HUNT: You know, Jake, all I can say on that is that there are very few leaders in the Republican Party who've been willing to stand up and say what Liz Cheney has said, and instead Republicans are hearing from their news outlets, many of which are increasingly to the right of Fox News. And the information that they're consuming is telling them that this big lie is actually true. And they're choosing to believe it, because, you know, Trump has been -- Donald Trump was particularly out there about saying, look, the reason I bashed the media is so that when you write a story that's true, I can say, plausibly, you shouldn't believe them and they won't. So, I think that's a big part of it.

But look, Mitch McConnell's comments were interesting to me for a couple of reasons. One, he has been someone who has stood on principle on January 6, I will give him that, but he never does anything if it doesn't line up with his ambitions to retain power both inside the Senate as the majority leader. And that means worrying about how his senators feel, but also worrying about how the electorate feels.

And he knows that so long as Republicans are having this fight, and they are literally divided, they are divided into two different groups. There is the base of the party, the first of which are with Marjorie Taylor Greene, and then there are a lot of people who are alienated from Donald Trump's party and who want an alternative. But he knows he's not going to win back the Senate majority if they're talking about this.

TAPPER: Right.

HUNT: If people are out there calling January 6 legitimate political discourse. If he's out there talking about inflation, he might win. So, that's, I think, part of why he went out and did this. And I don't think we should lose sight of that. And that talks about where the country is as a whole, as opposed to just the Republican Party itself.

TAPPER: What's your take on this, Francesca?

FRANCESCA CHAMBERS, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, MCCLATCHY: On a granular level, because I think you're hitting on a very important point right now, you have to look at who in his caucus also is up for reelection when you have senators like Lisa Murkowski, who was just talking to you the other day about this, who is up for reelection, and she often is out of line with what Donald Trump says and you want your senators and your caucus to trust you and get reelected. Her opponent is a Trump endorsed Republican. So, that's one thing that he may be taking into consideration.

But when you ask what the incentive is, though, for people to take this argument, what wins in a House race is not the same as when statewide in a Senate --

HUNT: A primary in a House, specific.

CHAMBERS: In a primary in a House race.

TAPPER: Right.

CHAMBERS: Or win statewide in a Senate race, those are not the same argument. And so, it may be beneficial for some House Republicans or Kevin McCarthy to take one side of this issue that does not make sense for a senator who's up for reelection who's a Republican or Senate candidate.

STEWART: And speaking of primaries, there's also the factor that many are keeping in the back of their minds, they realize if they stick their head too far out of the foxhole, they're going to be knocked down by Donald Trump. So, mark my word, after the filing deadlines in a lot of these states where people realize, hey, I don't have a primary opponent and Donald Trump cannot put one in against me, then we're going to see, I believe, a lot more people coming out, saying let's stop talking about the past and let's start talking about the future. And that's going to happen after these filing deadlines.

TAPPER: I want to show something to you, Alice, to make you feel better. Here is Alabama Governor Kay Ivey. She's up for reelection. And here's her new ad, and she takes on Joe Biden the way that you wanted to in a creative way. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. KAY IVEY (R-AL): Growing up, my mom and dad told us, if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. Well, here's what I have to say about Joe Biden. Poor Joe. Bless his heart.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STEWART: As we say in the south, bless her heart.

TAPPER: I thought you'd like that.

STEWART: I love that.

TAPPER: And also, no lies.

STEWART: No, no lies.

TAPPER: No lies about the election. No lies about January 6. No attacking of Liz Cheney.

HUNT: You know, focus on being nice. It's refreshing.

STEWART: Yes. No sleepy Joe's, no criticism is good. Just as Kay says, if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all.

TAPPER: One of the other problems that I see going forward is that the redistricting has made the seats more partisan, Democrats and Republicans both.

POWERS: Yes.

TAPPER: And that is going to make this even worse.

POWERS: Yes. Well, I mean, I am really interested to see if what Alice just said will come to fruition. If you actually will have people standing up to Trump, even if you get through a primary. He still looms very large over the Republican Party and looms very large over the base.

And so, I think that because especially in the House, because of the redistricting and because of how homogenous these districts are, I think there's an incentive definitely to align yourselves more with these Marjorie Taylor Greenes or with the Donald Trump view of the world.

[17:25:00]

TAPPER: What do you think?

HUNT: Well I think that we have a major problem as a country because frankly, we used to have what 50 something, or we currently have 50 something districts that are basically swing districts. We're going to have something closer to 20 by the time this process is done.

I mean, those are the people, you know, year in and year out that I covered Congress. Those are the people that you went to to find out what the heck was actually going to happen in Congress. Were they actually going to get anything done?

It was always on the shoulders of the moderate Democrats or the moderate Republicans, depending on who held the speakership. They were the people who governed, they were the people who had relationships on the other side, they were the people who had to be really serious about being a top notch, frankly, person, because running for in a general election is really hard and they were concerned about losing and that brings out higher quality candidates because it demands it. And so, the fewer of those people that we have, the worse off we are in total.

TAPPER: Yes, they're going to be replaced by the Gazpacho Police.

Thanks one and all for being here.

It appears the anti-COVID restriction protesters are in it for the long haul. Walking even more, U.S. Canadian border crossings. We're live in Ottawa, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:30:34]

TAPPER: In our world lead, demonstrators digging in two weeks into that trucker protest at the U.S.-Canada border. They call it the Freedom Convoy. It started in Canada's capital city of Ottawa. For days, truckers have been camped outside Parliament and the Prime Minister's home while others blocky access points to the United States near Detroit and as far west as the border crossing into Montana.

CNN's Paula Newton joins us now live from Ottawa. And Paula parts of Canada are talking about rolling back their vaccine mandates. Saskatchewan, for example. Is this welcome news to these protesters? Can they take any credit for it?

PAULA NEWTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I mean, look, it's more than Saskatchewan, it's Alberta, it's Quebec. This is happening because the Omicron wave is peaking and these provincial leaders have always said, look, when we can, we will roll them back. Is it satisfying the truckers? Absolutely not.

I mean, what's happened here, Jake, is they are looking for so much more than that. They don't want these leaders to even return any restrictions no matter what happens with COVID.

Let me give you a little tour while we're here, though, Jake. I mean, as you said, we're in front of Parliament, right? That is Parliament right there. And here, it looks more like a tailgate party now going into its second week. They tell us they have no intention of moving.

What's been incredible to me is if you look over here, Jake, that's the Prime Minister's office. They've been parked right outside the Prime Minister's office now, for as I said, the better part of two weeks.

What is happening now, though, is that politicians are starting to get together, seeing what they can do. And the fear that I have heard from regular everyday people, not just in this city, Jake, but just around Canada saying if this is the kind of civil disobedience, you know, that is tolerated, they fear for what can happen next. And that, you know, that fear is real.

I mean, consider what happened in Toronto in the last few hours. Police say on social media, they heard rumors, and another protest might pop up, and they had to go and really seal off the provincial legislature there. This is escalating almost by the hour, Jake.

TAPPER: All right, Paula Newton in Ottawa. Thank you so much.

Then there is, of course, the false information surrounding these protests. Let's bring in CNN's Daniel Dale, who in addition to being our resident fact checker, also hails from the great white north. Good to see you, Daniel. Let's start with some of the images that we've seen shared on social media, these large crowds, are they from these protests?

DANIEL DALE, CNN REPORTER: Yes. So Jake, there are a ton of photos and videos going around Twitter, Facebook, and so on, that are captioned as if they are from Ottawa or about people in support of what's going on in Ottawa, but -- that are from entirely different events from entirely different years. So there's one that's going around purporting to be a huge crowd in Ottawa. It's actually from Moscow in 1991, a giant anti-communist demonstration.

There's another photo that's going around on Facebook purporting to be a group of Amish people supporting this current protest convoy. It's actually a photo of a group of Mennonites simply going to church. There is an image that was posted by Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk, who didn't make an explicit claim. But given the context, a lot of people thought this aerial shot was a shot of the current Canadian protest convoy.

Well, it is a Canadian convoy, but from 2018, a truck convoy in support of the oil and gas industry. Tesla, of course, makes electric vehicles.

TAPPER: And you ran down to claim by a man who says he's one of the protest organizers who said that half of the police in Ottawa had resigned during these protests. What about that?

DALE: That claim is completely imaginary. Ottawa police say they've had zero resignations, none at all in connection to this protest. And this protest organizer as well as other organizers have a history of making things up, of making completely false claims. But that hasn't stopped them from going viral.

This one made its way to Twitter where a British actor got 11,000 retweets repeating it. And this protest organizer and others have made claims like 50,000 trucks were involved in this convoy. That 50,000 number was not even close to true. Canadian journalist put the number somewhere in the hundreds of trucks.

But this claim was repeated on Fox News by former Canadian hockey star Theo Fleury. It was repeated on Joe Rogan's podcast. So a lot of nonsense coming from the protests organizers that are being repeated elsewhere.

TAPPER: You know, it's a successful protest. They don't need to lie about it. They've already achieved what they want to achieve you. You also looked in some claims that the Canadian government is instructing hotels to not give rooms or reservation to protest. There's any truth to that?

[17:35:03]

DALE: There's no truth to that. I contacted the specific hotel that was mentioned in this tweet as well as five other Ottawa hotels. They said complete nonsense. Did not happen. The Canadian government says ridiculous. The Ottawa government says ridiculous. You know, I contacted the National Post newspaper columnist in Canada who promoted this claim on Twitter. She said she didn't even know it was true. It was just something she had been hearing from the protesters, and she put it out there on Twitter so the mainstream Canadian media could vet its accuracy.

I need to respectfully suggest as a fact checker, if you don't know as a journalist, if something is true, don't just throw it out there and say I'm just asking questions. It is incumbent upon all of us to vet the accuracy ourselves before promoting on social media.

TAPPER: Daniel Dale, thank you so much. Good to see you, my Canadian friend.

DALE: Thank you, sir.

TAPPER: It could be a Super Bowl record. Can the teams take the heat? Stick around.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TAPPER: In our world lead, a looming deadline to restore the Iran nuclear deal as far as the Biden White House is concerned. U.S. officials engaged in what they're calling the final stretch of talks with Iran to reach an agreement on limiting their nuclear program. The Biden administration poised to ramp up its efforts if an end of February deadline is not met.

[17:40:14]

CNN's Kylie Atwood is live for us at the State Department. Kylie, can we expect an agreement to be made on the Iran nuclear deal by this deadline?

KYLIE ATWOOD, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: It's not looking likely, Jake. And we heard from senators today who came out of a briefing from Special Representative to Iran for the United States, Rob Malley. And what they said after that briefing is that there is a deal potentially in sight, but you have to squint really hard to see it. Those are the words of Senator Murphy.

Senator Menendez said it's increasingly unlikely that there will be a deal. It's increasingly challenging to see that because the window for which a deal would have to be struck in is increasingly growing smaller. And it's our reporting that the Biden administration believes they only have until the end of February to strike this deal or to seek an alternate path. Of course, that's because Iran continues to develop its nuclear program outside the bounds of the Iran nuclear deal.

TAPPER: And how much of a threat does the Biden administration sink in the Iran nuclear program poses to the United States?

ATWOOD: When you talk about the U.S. homeland, the Iran nuclear program, if they developed a nuclear bomb, it wouldn't pose an immediate threat to the United States because they'd still need about one or two years, according to experts, to develop the deliverables, right, that's the weaponry that that would go on to potentially reach the United States.

But that aside, the U.S. has a tremendous amount of interest in the region, not to mention U.S. embassies, U.S. personnel and of course, our allies in the region. So this would be a catastrophic event if Iran had this nuclear weapon for the region in the short term and for the United States, of course, in the long term. Jake?

TAPPER: All right, Kylie Atwood at the State Department for us, thank you so much.

What does a censor depress look like? Well, just ask CNN's reporters in China. We're going to go behind China's wall of censorship next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:46:32]

TAPPER: Now it's time for our behind China's wall series in which we 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, its crimes against humanity, its genocide.

Today, the Hong Kong government, which is increasingly bowing to Beijing, is denying claims made by 21 countries, including the U.S. about how Hong Kong has been suppressing the free press, including recent government raids and arrests at independent media organizations in Hong Kong. The multilateral statements cites a, quote, deep concern for suppression of human rights and freedom of speech.

CNN's David Culver is live for us in Beijing. And David, this joint statement follows the recent release of an annual survey by the Foreign Correspondents' Club of China, which found 99 percent of foreign journalists say reporting conditions in China did not meet international standards. China's approach to foreign journalists seems to be in direct contrast to its supposed Olympic spirit of excellence and friendship and respect. Tell us about your experiences reporting there.

DAVID CULVER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Jake, it's gotten increasingly difficult even in just the last couple of years. Now on two fronts really, interference with our news gathering and they've made it personal. So when we talk about the news gathering, our visas for one have been limited to just three months instead of a year. Renewal is never a guarantee.

And then you got any four news bureaus here that are just frankly understaffed because the Chinese control the number of hires, then there's always the physical aspect of blocking ASA (ph) access. You know, we can show you that. We've seen it multiple times in many trips. You know, we can show you whether it's -- we traveled to Wuhan during the original outbreak. You know, security, they're stopping us often.

You can see some of these images here. They even have told us to delete our footage. Police hassling us just for doing interviews outside in a public space. So then there's Xinjiang where the U.S. alleges genocide of the Uighurs is taking place. When we go there, we're followed. We're kept from entering many places.

It's also gotten personal here, as the government and state media are increasingly targeting journalists by name. They share personal information about us. And in some cases, recently putting journalists' family details out there.

We should stress, though, you know, the vast majority of folks that we encounter here, they're incredibly kind, they're welcoming, but there is this increasing number of people buying into the fake news rhetoric which Chinese officials and state media have adopted. So the attacks, they can be vicious, they can be personal.

And Jake, with Beijing tightening its grip on Hong Kong, local journalists there, they're beginning to see similar crackdowns even being jailed under the National Security Law, which went into effect in 2020.

TAPPER: David, China has this zero COVID policy, which strictly enforces quarantines and closely tracks everyone coming into the country. I would suspect that they use that to control reporters even more.

CULVER: You're right. This has really accelerated their ability to kind of keep tabs on us. You know, the lock downs and contact tracing here. They're seemingly effective and containing the virus, sure, but also really effective in keeping us contained as journalists.

Take Xinjiang, for example. You know, depending on the severity of the outbreak in this country, they put COVID entry requirements in place, even if you're traveling from another part within China. So they can put you in quarantine for up to 14 days, doesn't matter how many multiple negative COVID test you have in hand.

And so that certainly dissuades many of us from traveling there. And then there's tracing. We, along with everyone in China now, track constantly through our smartphone health code apps.

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In Beijing, you need to have it to scan into just about every place you go, from getting into a rideshare, a taxi, to going into a restaurant. All of that in the name of health security. So it certainly makes it much easier for them to know where we are pretty much at all times. You know, the Chinese population included, but certainly and perhaps, Jake, most especially as journalists.

And the thing is, there is no indication that they plan to roll back any of these COVID restrictions anytime soon. In fact, it seems very likely that it will continue for many months, if not years to come, Jake.

TAPPER: All right, David Culver in Beijing with the latest in our behind China's wall series. Thank you so much. Let us pivot to our sports lead and bring in CNN's Sports Analyst Christine Brennan inside the Olympic bubble in Beijing. Christine, thanks so much for joining us. So let's talk about the nicer side of the Olympics, or at least the competition. You've been covering the Olympics for decades.

This year, it's very interesting. There are two athletes Eileen Gu and Zhu Yi who were born in California, but they're competing for the Chinese Olympic team. Switching teams is not that unusual. It's not unheard of. But this year, there is, of course, increased scrutiny and pressure on these two athletes.

There's an article in the Washington Post that says, "The experiment to internationalize Chinese sports is not sat easily with fiercely nationalist fans," in China, "who are watching the foreign born athletes closely when everything goes well as it has with Gu, viewers accept them with pride. But one slip up in competition or elsewhere, and the attempt to straddle the line between nations can become perilous."

How odd is this for American athletes to possibly have trained with these athletes and now have to compete against them?

CHRISTINE BRENNAN, CNN SPORTS ANALYST: Jake, absolutely. I mean, politics and these Olympic Games will be the headline always. And these two athletes certainly exemplify that. In the case of the figure skater, she was almost set up to fail. I mean, it's tough to skate and to be the representative of your country. She was for the women's competition, she fell. And of course, she has just been getting a torrent of abuse on social media here in China.

It's such a shame. We could have seen that coming. With Gu, it's the opposite. It's the perfect ending for her. Now she will be faced with questions the rest of her career, about why she chose to link herself with China and, of course, its repressive government and human rights violations that we all know about the abuses, especially in the wake of the Peng Shuai story.

So that's her call. That's her choice. It's 1.4 billion fancier, 1.4 billion consumers and she can market to all of them. But she's also going to have to deal with why she did this, why she chose to do this. San Francisco-based, American young woman, and yet she is linking not with the United States, but -- which is her right -- but with a government in a country that is in the spotlight, as no other country is right now.

TAPPER: And you have some new reporting today on the figure skating team competition getting delayed because of a positive drug test on the Russian team. How often is this happening?

BRENNAN: Well, Russia, it's a Lifetime Achievement Award, Jake, for Russia in terms of doping. They are, in fact, not known here, as Russia, as I'm sure some viewers have noticed, it's the Russian Olympic Committee, RCO. Now it's still Russia. And the colors are Russia. They don't get to play their national anthem. But they're being punished. They've been sent to the principal's office. And this is now the fourth Olympic Games, where they are in trouble for doping. The problem is that the International Olympic Committee allows them to keep coming.

If you told Russia no, you could literally not come to the Olympics, they might learn their lesson. So now we have a story. I broke this story a few hours ago that one member of the six athlete Russian figure skating team competition did test positive, throwing everything in doubt. Not just the team gold medal, which if Russia is knocked out and disqualified, Jake, the U.S. would then move up to that gold medal position. But also the competition coming from now on in these games, the individual competition.

So Russia being Russia, but if it is, in fact, a minor has been reported by some, I have not yet reported that information. Then the question comes in of who was in charge of her why if, in fact she was given some kind of a drug. And is she in charge of her own life and body and career. Very troubling issues that I am predicting will carry through every day of the rest of these Olympic Games,

TAPPER: Almost as if if you don't punish in a real way, people who break the rules, they'll keep breaking the rules. Christine Brennan inside the Olympic bubble in Beijing, thanks so much.

You're going to have to dip deeper into your wallet for those wings, chips and dips. Next, why your Super Bowl party this Sunday could be quite a bit more expensive.

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TAPPER: In our money lead, are you hosting a Super Bowl party while you might want to consider throwing a Hail Mary and ditching the meat? Inflation is causing chicken prices to jump 12 percent, ground beef for your chili up 13 percent. Steak? You'll have to dish out a whopping 21 percent more, according to an analysis by Wells Fargo.

Now if you're not sweating those price hikes, you'll definitely be sweating if you're going to the game because the National Weather Service today issued the first ever February heat advisory for Los Angeles, a heat advisory. The temperature for the big game is forecast to be as high as 90 degrees which would, of course, make it the hottest Super Bowl in history.

Follow me on Facebook, on Instagram, on Twitter, on the TikTok at JakeTapper. You can tweet the show with TheLeadCNN. You know if you ever missed an episode of THE LEAD, you can listen to it wherever you get your podcasts.

Our coverage continues now with one Mr. Wolf Blitzer in "THE SITUATION ROOM" who have all the latest on the Gazpacho police. See you tomorrow.