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The Lead with Jake Tapper

U.S. & NATO: No Proof Of Russian Pullback Despite Kremlin Claims; Ukraine: Cyberattack On Websites For Ukrainian Defense And Two Major Banks Was "Largest" In Country's History; Interview With Sen. Pat Toomey (R-PA); Biden Rejects Trump's Attempt To Shield White House Visitor Logs; CDC Director: We Expect To Release New Mask Guidance "Soon"; Police Find 6-Year-Old Girl Abducted Two Years Ago. Aired 4-5p ET

Aired February 16, 2022 - 16:00   ET

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

[16:00:01]

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Here's my point.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: What is your point?

CAMEROTA: I love live music. I've missed it.

BLACKWELL: Yes.

CAMEROTA: But lollapalooza did this, this past summer in Chicago, and they had vaccination requirements or a negative COVID test and 400,000 people showed up. So I don't think it was a deterrent. You can do both.

BLACKWELL: Looking forward to it.

THE LEAD WITH JAKE TAPPER starts now.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: Should the U.S. now be saying, don't trust but verify?

THE LEAD starts right now.

The Russian government claims it is starting a troop drawdown. But there is one quick Russian government video constitute sufficient proof? What the White House is now saying about Vladimir Putin's plans to possibly invade Ukraine.

Plus, coming soon, new CDC guidance on masking. But is it too little too late as states and cities are continuing to do their own thing?

And a shocking surprise. An eagle eyed police officer looks under the stairs of a home to find a little girl who has been missing for two years.

(MUSIC)

TAPPER: Welcome to THE LEAD. I'm Jake Tapper. And we start today with our world lead, and signs that Russia might not have been telling the full truth when it claimed to be removing troops from the border with Ukraine. Today, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said we've seen no signs of pullback of Russian forces despite videos such as this one we're showing you right now from the Russian ministry of defense, claiming to portray at least a partial drawdown. And a Ukrainian intelligence report by CNN says the Russian troop build-up is still continuing, though intelligence report does note that Ukraine does not believe the current number of Russian forces is enough to effectively stage a full invasion of that country.

As CNN's Phil Mattingly reports for us now, members of the Biden administration today talk with allies around the globe as they all look and pray for signs Russia is serious about de-escalation.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEN PSAKI, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: There's, you know, what Russia says and there's what Russia does.

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A second day of Russia troop announcements.

ANTONY BLINKEN, SECRETARY OF STATE: What we're seeing is no meaningful pullback.

MATTINGLY: A second day of skepticism from U.S. and allied officials.

BLINKEN: We continue to see not only the forces match, we see critical movement toward the border, not away from the border.

MATTINGLY: Urgency, crisis, showing no signs of dissipating, as 150,000 troops continue to ring Ukraine's border.

JENS STOLTENBERG, NATO SECRETARY GENERAL: We have heard signs from Moscow about readiness to continue diplomatic efforts. But so far, we have be seen any de-escalation on the ground.

MATTINGLY: Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin in Brussels for a meeting of allied defense ministers. President Biden spoke by phone with German chancellor Olaf Scholz.

PSAKI: The door continues to be open to diplomacy. It is moving forward diplomatic conversations on many channels.

MATTINGLY: That call coming one day after Scholz met with Russian President Vladimir Putin, a meeting closely watched by U.S. officials looking for any clear signals of Putin's intension after days of mixed messages. But as the Russian ministry of defense released unverified video to back their drawdown claims, U.S. officials remain on a state of high alert. One day after President Biden's most detailed remarks on the crisis to date.

BIDEN: An invasion remains distinctly possible.

MATTINGLY: Remarks that drew rare praise from congressional Republicans.

SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY): It was much on the president's remarks that I appreciated.

MATTINGLY: For Biden who served as the point man for President Barack Obama during the last Russian incursion into Ukraine, a deeply personal issue, officials tell CNN, the one he has been intensely engaged in for weeks.

BIDEN: We do not stand for freedom where it is at risk today will surely pay a steeper price tomorrow.

MATTINGLY: But as Ukraine observed a day of unity on a day it was rumored that Russian forces plan to attack, a decision to relocate the CIA station in Kyiv, just the latest move underscoring sustained and palpable U.S. concern.

PSAKI: We're in the window where we believe an attack could come at any time.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MATTINGLY (on camera): And, Jake, with U.S. officials waiting for any verified information about troop withdrawals, they're also waiting for any signals on the diplomatic side of things. Russia has still not responded in writing to U.S. security proposals that were sent a few weeks ago. The expectation is those could come in the next several days but so far, nothing, Jake.

TAPPER: All right. Phil Mattingly at the White House for, thank you so much.

Let's go to our team on the ground in Ukraine. CNN's Clarissa Ward is in the capital of Kyiv and CNN's Alex Marquardt is in the key port city of Mariupol.

Alex, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visited Mariupol today. What did he have to say?

ALEXANDER MARQUARDT, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, Jake. He was on a tour for this day of unity. He started up north and then he came up south. He visited a National Guard base and he thanked the troops for their service. He handed out medals. He was accompanied by a number of European diplomats.

And he went on to -- sorry, Jake. This day of unity came about, remember, because he had made the sarcastic comment a couple days ago, saying that he didn't believe that this attack would happen today, on Wednesday the 16.

[16:05:11]

So why not have this day of national unity?

And today, he told the troops that they were ready to fight. That no matter what would happen on the 16th, 17th, or 18th, no matter what, they were ready to defend Ukraine. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PRES. VOLODYMYR ZELENSKY, UKRAINE (through translator): We are not intimidated by any predictions of war. Any people, enemies or any dates, because we will defend ourselves. Whether it is February 16th, 17th, in March, April, or September or December, it's not important. What's important is this is area 2022. Not 2014. We've become much stronger.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MARQUARDT: And that is a point that we have heard repeatedly from Ukrainians. Over the last eight years, they have become much stronger. Not just because they've been getting the influx of weapons from the West, but they have experience. They've been fighting not about 15 miles away from here, Russian-backed forces for the last eight years. They've seen Crimea seized from them.

This is also why, Jake, when you ask Ukrainians, whether they are afraid, why they are not panicking, they say this is something we've been living with for eight long years. So this is not something necessarily weighing on their mind -- Jake.

TAPPER: All right. Clarissa, tell us about this Ukrainian report which CNN obtained exclusively. It downplays the ability of the Russian military to stage a full blown invasion.

But I have to ask, is it not just as likely that Russia could stage a smaller invasion, seizing a smaller part of land?

CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah. So what's interesting, it forms the same conclusion in terms of the number of Russian troops around this country, 148,000. It puts it as Biden said yesterday, roughly 150,000.

But it draws a starkly different conclusion on the matter of whether that would be sufficient to launch an all-out invasion. As you mentioned, there are many possible permutations. It could be a land corridor trying to link Russia to Crimea. That would go right through the city where Alex is currently standing, in Mariupol.

But I think what you're seeing here is that the Ukrainian leadership really wants to try to reframe this crisis a little bit, because for them, the issue and the threat and the destabilizing factor here is not just the potential possibility of an all-out invasion but what is already happening right now. Economically, the country has struggled tremendously with foreign investment very low, there have been cyberattacks, there is a constant perpetual flow of misinformation.

And so, as Alex was saying, the leadership is used to living in the shadow of Russian aggression. It is used to being, you know, the victim of a number of different threats. And I think the feeling is that the longer the exclusive focus is on this threat of all-out invasion, the easier it is to forget the pervasive actions that are already ongoing, and which are already having a detrimental effect on this country, Jake.

TAPPER: And, Alex, CNN has just obtained new satellite images of construction projects in Belarus, right near the border, and these could be used by Russia in a possible invasion, right?

MARQUARDT: This just adds, Jake, to the doubt about what Russia is saying with pulling their troops back. What we are seeing and being told from sources and satellite imagery, virtually overnight, this pontoon bridge appeared over a key river in southern Belarus. It is a pontoon bridge that would allow forces, vehicles to get across.

It is another indication that they are continuing to build infrastructure like bridges, hospitals. I was speaking with a spokesperson for president Zelensky earlier today. He said they are seeing these troop movements. But it is far too early to tell what exactly they mean. Are they drawing down? Are they not?

The Ukrainians have seen the Russians draw down before, only to see them build back up again. And this bridge in Belarus, which we should remind our viewers, is just to the north of Ukraine. Being just four miles away from that border would only facilitate the ability of Russian forces to quickly cross from that border and head into Ukraine. The capital Kyiv being just a short drive from the border with Belarus, Jake.

TAPPER: All right. Clarissa Ward in Kyiv, Ukraine. Alex Marquardt in Mariupol Ukraine, thanks to both of you.

Joining us in studio to discuss, Beth Sanner, the attorney general deputy director of national intelligence from 2019 until September 2021.

Thanks so much for being here. Appreciate it.

So, what do you think about this Ukrainian intelligence report asserting that Russia doesn't have the manpower at 150,000 for a full- scale invasion?

[16:10:09]

BETH SANNER, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: I think that Clarissa just laid out this dilemma, right? There are three options on the table right now -- invasion, diplomacy, and something in between. No peace, no war.

And we're seeing kind of all of those play out. So I'm not sure that the numbers really matter because what's happening right now is we're playing out. We're seeing this middle strategy, this pressure on Ukraine.

But all options are on the table. And as the NATO secretary general said today, more troops are coming in.

So, are they going to be at 175 or 178 or whatever? Eventually, they probably will be. But there are lots of per mutations on the table. TAPPER: So, former national security adviser and U.N. ambassador,

John Bolton, said something similar yesterday. He does not think a full-scale invasion is the likely outcome. Instead, a smaller invasion. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN BOLTON, FORMER NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER TO DONALD TRUMP: I think it is more likely Putin will slice up Ukraine, take more of the eastern part, take the northern shore of the Black Sea and the port of Odessa and landlocked Ukraine.

It won't be a full-out invasion. Then people will say, the risk is people will say, is that all there is? That's not so bad and the sanctions will not be as sweeping as Biden has promised.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: What do you think?

SANNER: I think the big picture here is that Putin does not want an independent Ukraine. He wants a subservient Ukraine. So there are different ways of going about that. I think taking a slice off the Donbas is not as likely because it doesn't solve the core problem of Ukraine and Ukrainians wanting to anchor themselves in the West.

So I think we could see this drag out for a little while, the diplomatic option, trying to get different angles of getting that subservient Ukraine. The Minsk agreement is all about that.

TAPPER: Uh-huh.

SANNER: So ,can he by doing a smaller invasion cause the Ukrainian government to collapse and put a puppet in? That's how it could play out. So, it's possible.

I am of the mind that a direct invasion in the next few days is less likely as he is pushing this diplomatic angle. We saw the Chinese foreign ministry come out today and say, you have to negotiate, Minsk.

TAPPER: So Russia says it is removing some troops from the border. U.S. and European officials say there are no signs this is actually happening. Yet, surely Putin knows the west can confirm whether he's telling the truth. Maybe it's naive to ask.

What does he have to lie about these things?

SANNER: You know, Putin is a person who lives in a world of disinformation. There are different audiences.

Right now, what I'm seeing a lot of is the discourse in Russia, which is completely controlled by state TV, is building up this narrative of the Russians are the good guys. We want peace. We don't intend to invade. In fact, it is Zelensky that is threatening genocide. You have RT, Russia TV, people crying on television, saying that genocide will happen. We need to invade. So I think it is part of this building Putin up. Looking like a

statesman. And he's saying, well, you know, I'm still pulling out. It is too soon to make that judgment.

TAPPER: All right. Beth Sanner, thank you so much for your insights. We really appreciate it.

Weapons you can see and weapons you cannot. Ukraine is trying to determine who was behind the largest cyberattack in that country's history.

Then, a staircase shocker. How police found a little girl who've been missing for two years right under their feet literally. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:17:56]

TAPPER: Sticking with the world lead. Today, officials in Ukraine saying yesterday's cyberattack was the largest ever in that country's history. The attack temporarily blocking online access to Ukraine's defense ministry as well as the two prominent banks. Those websites are now back up.

Despite Russia's history with these kinds of attacks, Ukraine says it is too early to tell who was definitely responsible.

CNN anchor Erin Burnett is live in Lviv in Western Ukraine for us.

And, Erin, today, the Ukrainian military released new footage of their own air force drills. They say they're also getting ready in case Russia invades.

ERIN BURNETT, CNN ANCHOR, "OUTFRONT": Yeah. I mean, you know, the Ukrainian military now, Jake, trying to counter with their own video, right, of putting out their own video that they're getting ready. As you know, yesterday, we spoke to a bunch of men who are very adept with guns, who are training to be guerrillas.

Today, we went to a recruitment center. It was a day of unity to see what was happening at the recruiting center. So, we saw a couple men signing up. What is interesting is a new law here, Jake, passed on January 1st for national resistance.

So, they are now just since January 1st, trying on create 25 additional brigades to basically protect local cities and towns in the event of street warfare, essentially. And they're just starting now. These people are just joining. They're certainly not trained. It gives you a sense of the upward slope there is to go.

I spoke to one man who joined in November and is now taking on the 103rd brigade here in the Lviv region. I just want to give you a sense so you understand sort of the passion that they bring to this, how much they care about defending their homes and their streets. Here he is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TARAS ISHCHYK, PRESS SECRETARY, UKRAINIAN TERRITORIAL DEFENSE FORCES: We build our brigade very fast. It is very hard times now. People need to protect their homes. They need to fight with Russian aggression.

I understood that I am not ready for this and what can I do to be ready actually?

[16:20:02]

And this was -- this was my decision. It's help me to sleep at night.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: Jake, that's what we've heard from all the young men that we've spoken to. By the way, he said recruits are anywhere between the ages 18 and 57 of people who are joining. We saw a former veteran come in. Had to be in his 20s, but had already fought in Crimea, coming in.

It is this palpable feeling that they don't feel they're ready but that they are going to be ready, and that they are willing to fight literally on their streets. And you just, again, you hear that again and again from every single person that you meet here. It is a pretty consistent feeling of a resistance that will be very, very firm.

TAPPER: Erin Burnett in western Ukraine for us, thank you so much.

Be sure to watch more of Erin this evening as she anchors OUTFRONT from Ukraine. That's at 7:00 p.m. Eastern, only on CNN.

Let's bring in Republican Senator Pat Toomey from the great commonwealth of Pennsylvania. He's among the group of Republicans introducing their own bill to sanction Russia after bipartisan efforts to do so stalled.

Senator, good to see you again. I want to start with the cyberattack yesterday. Ukraine says the attack was the largest in its history. Couple that with the U.S. today saying Russian hackers have been breaching American defense contractors for the last two years, and collecting intelligence. On wonders if Putin's cyber capabilities might be more of a global threat than any troop build-up along Ukraine's border.

SEN. PAT TOOMEY (R-PA): There's no question that the Russians have invested very heavily in developing an offensive cyber capability. They use it. They test it all the time. And it's a very -- it's a formidable threat and they are in all likelihood, deploying it now.

And unfortunately, that's -- you know, that's a problem for the Ukrainians. It is one of the areas where we can help Ukraine.

TAPPER: So Republicans have gone at it alone in a bill to sanction Russia before any invasion happens. Your Democratic colleague Senator Mark Warner said the Democrats might have been on board with the proposal Republican Lindsey Graham floated. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. MARK WARNER (D-VA): You can say, all right, here are the sanctions to go in immediately before even any invasion but still give the president some level of an ability to waive those and give him some discretion. That's what Senator Lindsey Graham proposed. I think we could have gotten there on that. Unfortunately, some of the hard liners in the Republican camp weren't willing to go along with that compromised approach.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: Senator Toomey, what's your response to that? What was wrong with the proposal from Senator Graham?

TOOMEY: Well, let me tell what you this bill does. And it is very, very constructive. It sends military aid to Ukraine. It accelerates and enhances their ability to defend themselves from cyberattacks. It prevents the Nord Stream 2 from becoming operational. That's very, very important.

And if there is an invasion, it is devastating sanctions that are much tougher post-invasion than the sanctions contemplated by our democratic colleagues in the administration. And specifically, the category that I think is most important, the big difference between our two approaches, is in our bill we impose secondary sanctions on Russian banks. That has the effect of really shutting down the Russian economy. Probably crashes the ruble, makes it very difficult for them to sell even oil and gas anywhere in the world.

That is the devastating consequence that we think is appropriate if they were to actually invade Ukraine, which they may well do. That's different. That's not in our Democratic colleagues' bill.

TAPPER: I've asked the White House before about the previous sanctions from posed by Republicans and they had that in order to keep Germany on board and happy in the NATO coalition, and obviously, they're a very important player, ending the Nord Stream pipeline before any invasion would be a real problem. How do you figure that out?

TOOMEY: So, right now, the Nord Stream 2 pipeline is not operational. And my understanding is the Germans are not in the process of making it operational. So sanctioning it doesn't really change the fact that it is not operational. And that's a good place to stay.

Look, there is a diplomatic challenge the administration has in keeping NATO united. It's true that some European countries have gotten themselves overly dependent on Russian gas, especially. That was a very bad idea. And that is going to be a challenge to work our way through.

But look, a military invasion of a sovereign state on the edge of Western Europe is completely unacceptable. We've got -- here's the thing -- this is way I think about it, Jake. Our goal, if Putin were to make this mistake and invade Ukraine, our goal has to be that he eventually comes to the conclusion that was a mistake, and that he never should have done it.

[16:25:03]

And. by the way, President Xi in China ought to come to that same conclusion. If they don't come to that conclusion, then we have much more trouble ahead. To me, that's the goal and that's going to take really tough sanctions regime.

TAPPER: Let me ask but another issue. You're the top Republican on the banking committee. You and your Republican colleagues boycotted yesterday's vote on the nominees for the Federal Reserve. At issue is specifically Sarah Raskin to be the Fed's top banking regulator. You say she won't answer questions about her time at a Colorado financial firm.

Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren says the real issue is Raskin wants to target climate change and its threat to the financial system. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN (D-MA): She has had the courage to talk about it and to say that banks need to be accounting for climate crisis in terms of the value of their assets, the lending they do, and so on. And the industry, the big corporations think, whoa! She can be tough, she can be a problem. Let's focus in and try to shut this down.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: What's your response to Senator Warren, sir?

TOOMEY: Where to begin? So, what we did yesterday happens to be the same thing that Chairman Brown urged his Democratic colleagues to do in the Senate finance committee a couple years ago.

We object only to having a vote on Ms. Raskin. I've told Chairman Brown, any time yesterday or today or any time, we can vote on the other five nominees. Some of whom I support. Some of whom I don't.

But here's what's different about Ms. Raskin. There is a very peculiar set of circumstances surrounding a company that she was affiliated with and made a lot of money from. And we can't get answers as to what happened.

And it's not that complicated. Here's what happened. It's called Reserve Trust. It's a Colorado-based fintech that applied for a master account at the Fed, which is a very, very valuable thing. No fintech in America has gotten that. They were turned down.

Then, Ms. Raskin called the Kansas City Fed, had a conversation with them, and subsequently the Fed did a 180-degree reversal and approved the transaction for Reserve Trust. So, today, they are the only fintech that I know of that actually has one of these accounts with the Fed. That's enormously valuable.

We can't get any -- Ms. Raskin won't acknowledge, won't admit that she remembers making the call. The president of the Kansas City Fed knows.

And I want to know this happened in an appropriate fashion. And every fin tech in America that would like to get a master account deserves to know, how did they manage to do this? And, by the way, the very, very superficial explanation given by the Kansas City Fed was directly contradicted by the folks at the banking regulators in Colorado whom she invoked.

So there is a lot going on here that nobody wants to tell us what really happen, and the American people have a rate to know.

TAPPER: Republican Senator Pat Toomey from the great commonwealth of Pennsylvania, thank you so much for your time, sir. Good to see you as always.

TOOMEY: Thanks for having me, Jake.

TAPPER: The January 6th committee could soon get a closer look at what was happening inside Trump's White House while rioters attacked the Capitol. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:33:09]

TAPPER: Turning to our politics right now, one of the great unknowns of the deadly January 6th insurrection is what then President Trump was up to at the White House. And with whom was he meeting?

Now White House visitor logs from that day could lead the January 6th House Committee to an answer. The head of the National Archives says the records will be in the hands of the committee in just 15 days.

CNN's Paula Reid joins us now.

Paula, how much detail is usually in these White House logs?

PAULA REID, CNN SENIOR LEGAL AFFAIRS CORREPONDENT: Well, logs contain information from people who visited the White House. If you don't have a pass, a permanent pass to be wandering around that complex, you have to submit your personal details. You have to submit information about who are you meeting with? What day, what time, and the location, down to the specific room.

And today, the Biden White House counsel notes that in terms of this kind of information, the Biden administration releases these details with few exceptions on a monthly basis, which is part of why they believe these have to be shared with the committee. But there are some limits on exactly what this will reveal.

For example, if you are scheduled, if you have an appointment to meet with the chief of staff. You go into his or her office. You wander down the hall and end up in the Oval Office talking with the president. That won't be reflected in the logs because that's not the detail that you submitted up front. There are also limits on how much information we get about who is in

the residence. Both the Obama and Biden administrations have really limited information that they've released about any personal guests who went to the residence.

So this will give the committee additional details but it's not going to give them the full picture of everyone who was in and out of the White House that day.

TAPPER: All right. That's something everybody wants to know.

Paula Reid, thank you so much.

Mask mandates are being ripped away across the country. So, why is the CDC still waiting to issue guidance? That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:39:20]

TAPPER: In our health lead today, the CDC guidance on masks is coming soon, we're told. That's according to the agency director, Dr. Rochelle Walensky today, citing the dramatic drop in new COVID cases and hospitalizations.

But as CNN's Alexandra Field reports for us now, local authorities have not been waiting around for the CDC to issue new guidance.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DR. ROCHELLE WALENSKY, CDC DIRECTOR: We are all cautiously optimistic about the trajectory we are on.

ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Even with massive declines in the COVID caseload, there is no new guidance from the federal government on when and how to move away from masks.

WALENSKY: We want to give a break from things like mask wearing when these metrics are better and then have the ability to reach for them again should things worsen. We'll soon put guidance in place.

[16:40:04]

FIELD: For now, the CDC says hospital capacity remains a top priority amid considerations for when to roll back restrictions. According to the agency, virus transmission is considered substantial or high in 97 percent of counties nationwide. Even so, nearly every state is pushing ahead in the absence of new guidance. There are just three states left that have yet to announce an end to mask mandates.

Local authorities are taking the lead but after two years of deep divides over how to handle the pandemic, there are some irreparable rifts.

Kaiser Health News reports Douglas County, Colorado, and the city of West Covina in southern California are splitting from their public health agencies to perform their own local departments. With omicron's peak now behind us, Disney, Universal Studios Orlando, and Coachella, all announcing they're dropping mask requirements.

And the White House says the majority of Americans who ordered free test kits during the surge have finally received them.

JEFFREY ZIENTS, COORDINATOR, WHITE HOUSE COVID-19 RESPONSE TEAM: Eighty-five percent of the initial orders are now out the door. In the next several days, we will complete the shipping.

FIELD: Two years in, the government has made available 230 million high quality masks. With much of the country now locked in fierce debates over masks in schools, those masks for kids aren't here yet.

DR. TOM INGLESBY, SENIOR ADVISER, WHITE HOUSE COVID-199 RESPONSE TEAM: The government will be making high quality masks available for kids. That process is underway.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FIELD (on camera): And, Jake, parents in Virginia will now be able to opt out of school mask mandates for their children. Governor Youngkin signing that bill saying Virginia is restoring power back to the parents -- Jake.

TAPPER: All right. Alexandra Field, thanks so much.

Here to discuss, Dr. Jonathan Reiner, professor of medicine and surgery at George Washington University, as well as a CNN medical analyst.

Dr. Reiner, just across the river in Virginia, Governor Glenn Youngkin has signed this legislation allowing parents to have the decision whether or not their kids are masked what do you think? Is that the right move?

DR. JONATHAN REINER, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: No. First of all, the majority of kids in a lot of places remain unvaccinated. The unvaccinated in our population are still really vulnerable to a virus that's still around in great number.

Let's look at where we are now. The good news is that things have gotten a lot better. Case rates are plummeting around the United States. We're still averaging around 140,000 cases per day, down from a peak of almost a million. That's a gigantic drop.

But if you look at where we were in the peak of delta in September, we were exactly where we are now. We were at 140,000 cases per day.

So, in September, would we have basically lobbied all around the country to drop mask mandates? We would have said no. There's a lot of virus here.

Things are so much better but we have a lot. There are so many people who remain vulnerable. I think it's too soon. Some places, you know, we will start to approach a time. D.C. is

getting better. It is coming close to where we were at our lowest levels. Places like New York are dropping rapidly. But there is a lot of virus around and I think it's really premature.

TAPPER: The CDC says its new masking guidance is coming soon. What should the guidance be right now when it comes to masking?

REINER: Well, I think we're going to have to do it on a community by community basis that takes into account not just the level of virus in the community but the amount of people in hospitals in the United States. And there are still 85,000 people hospitalized.

Again, we're about -- almost twice where we were when omicron began. We need the take into account, what is the level of protection in the community? A place like D.C. which is about to drop mask mandates for parts of our community, 79 percent of the population is fully vaccinated, but there are parts of the United States where that is not the case.

Wyoming, for instance, you know, 54 percent of the people in Wyoming are fully vaccinated. So there are a lot of variables to keep track of when we're trying to understand when it is safe to drop masking. And also, when we drop masking, we're telling the most vulnerable in our population that you're on your own. And I'm uncomfortable with that message.

When Youngkin drops mask mandates, or allows parents to opt out of mask mandates in Virginia, what he's telling the parent of a child with either severe asthma or brittle diabetes or a kid who is recovering from leukemia, that they're on their own.

TAPPER: One of the issues I hear a lot from viewer, the CDC doesn't seem to distinguish, although they acknowledge on their website that there is a difference, but they don't seem to distinguish the real difference between a cloth mask that your Aunt Sadie made you with eagles logos on it or whatever, and an N-95 mask. But there is a big difference.

The CDC acknowledges it on the website but when it comes to mask requirements or mandates, they don't.

[16:45:03]

And I think a lot of people are confused by that because they think -- if the cloth mask doesn't really do that much, why are they mandating it?

REINER: I think CDC leadership believes any mask is better than no mask. What I'm here to say, if you want to wear a mask, wear an N-95, a KN-95 or a KF-94 mostly from Korea. Those three mask type are extraordinarily protective against acquiring COVID.

A cloth mask, particularly a bandana worn loosely around the face is fashion. Every person should be -- look. It made sense when N-95 masks were difficult to come by or expensive. That's not the case now. And CDC should firmly state that if you're going to wear a mask, KN-95, N- 95 or KF-94.

TAPPER: Dr. Jonathan Reiner, good to see you again. Thank you so much.

An eagle-eyed police officer finds a little girl missing for two years when he sees something strange under a staircase. What caught his eye? That's next.

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TAPPER: We're back with our national lead.

Moments ago, a court appearance for two men and a woman arrested after a girl was found alive two years after she went missing. Saugerties, New York Police discovered Paislee Shultis who is now 6 years old hidden under a wooden staircase last night, with her biological mother who does not have custody.

CNN Shimon Prokupecz joins us now.

Shimon, how exactly did police know where to find Paislee after these two years?

SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN CRIME NAD JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, it was good police work. The investigators never gave up, and the parents just leaving courts moments ago. They have been released, as the case goes through the procedures. And so, they're out now. The judge releasing them and adjourning the case to next month.

So there is a will the going on. We also don't know, like why did the parents ultimately lose custody of this 6-year-old, then 4-year-old, who was kidnapped?

What really went on it was police. The police in Saugerties never gave up. They continued to investigate. They went to the home several times. The biological parents wouldn't really allow them inside to do a search.

Finally, working on a tip Monday night, the police were able to get inside. And it was a detective, a detective who was walking on the stairs of this home, up and down several times. After about an hour and a half of searching, noticed something strange. He looked through a crack in the staircase and he saw that blanket. When he looked further, he saw little feet. That's when they broke the stairs apart and they found the 6-year-old with her mother.

Interestingly enough, the police said they walked up and down the stairs. They heard nothing coming from underneath there until they obviously broke it apart and they took her out of there and they took her mother into custody. Then they took her to a McDonald's. She wanted McDonald's. They took her to McDonald's and gave her a happy meal.

We're told she is doing okay. She's been reunited with her guardians, the people who have custody of her and her older sister, Jake.

TAPPER: All right. Shimon Prokupecz, thank you so much. Crazy story.

In the newest episode of plane passengers gone wild, an effort to put flyers on a no-fly list. It is already getting pushback in the Congress.

Stay with us.

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

This hour, battling drug overdose deaths by letting users use. We're taking a closer look into a controversial program aimed at lowering overdoses, in our series, "United States of addiction".

Plus, do you remember your driver's license number from decades ago? Well, neither do I. But questions like that are leading to massive voter confusion and rejected ballots and applications. The result of a new Republican led election law in one of the biggest states.

And leading this hour, what's real and what's not on the Russian- Ukraine border? The Kremlin claiming some forces are pulling back, while Ukraine and the west say the exact opposite is happening.

Let's get straight to CNN's Matthew Chance in Kyiv.

Matthew, President Biden said there were more than 150,000 Russian troops around Ukraine right now. Ukrainian officials believe that is not enough for a full-scale invasion?

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right. That's according to the most reason Ukrainian military intelligence analysis that we've got, given to us earlier today, exclusively here at CNN, concurring actually with President Biden's assessments of how many Russian troops there are close to the Ukrainian border. He said 150,000. The Ukrainian said more than 148,000. That's one area of agreement.

But the Ukrainian intelligence assessment did deviate from the U.S. side by saying, look, we don't think -- and I'm paraphrasing it here -- we don't think that level of forces is sufficient to be able to commit to a big, large-scale armed invasion of Ukraine. That doesn't mean they can't do a smaller one or they can't try it with a force the Ukrainians assess not to be big enough.

But nevertheless, that is what the assessment said. They don't think that there are enough Russian forces there at the moment to stage a full-scale invasion which is what the United States has been warning about.

Now, what the Ukrainians are saying is that they're more concerned about is internal destabilization inside of Ukraine. The Russians using economic levers, energy is a weapon and, of course, cyberattacks to stabilize Ukraine as a way of getting their point across -- Jake. TAPPER: And, Matt, CNN has obtained new satellite images which show

road construction and a new bridge in Belarus near the Ukrainian border. What are sources saying about this new construction?

CHANCE: Yeah, this is -- this is reporting coming to CNN saying there have been satellite images.