Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Coverage of President Obama's News Coverage; Obama: "There Is Still A Way" For Russia To Solve Ukraine Crisis Through Diplomacy; Satellite Spots 122 Objects In One Area; Pinger Locator In Perth For Black Box Search; Up To 24 Dead In Washington Landslide

Aired March 26, 2014 - 10:00   ET

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

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: I think on both sides of the Atlantic, there was recognition that in the initial incursion into Crimea, we had to take some very specific steps, and we did. Identifying individuals that were in part responsible for those actions. When the Russian government made the decision to annex Crimea after a referendum that nobody outside of Russia I think could take seriously. We then heightened those sanctions again in coordination. What we are now doing is coordinating around the potential for deeper sanctions should Russia move forward and engage further incursions into Ukraine.

We recognize that in order for Russia to feel the brunt, the impact of these sanctions, that it will have some impact on the global economy as well as all the countries represented here today. We are mindful that is going to be different not just between the United States and Europe, but also among different countries inside of Europe, some of whom are more dependent, for example, on energy from Russia than others are.

So we're taking all of this into account. I think energy is obviously a central focus of our efforts, and we have to consider very strongly. This entire event has pointed to the need for Europe to look at how it can further diversify its energy sources. And the United States is blessed with some additional energy sources that have been developed, in part, because of new technologies.

We've already licensed, authorized the export of as much natural gas each day as Europe uses each day. It is going into the open market. It is not targeted directly. It is going through private companies that get these licenses and they make decisions on the world market about where that energy is going to be sold. The question is whether through our energy ministers and at the highest levels, we are able to find ways in which we can accelerate this process of diversification.

This is something we are very much committed to. We think it would be good for Europe. We think it would be good for the United States. It is not something that can happen overnight. It is not something that can happen overnight. What this entire crisis is pointing to is the need for us to get moving now with a sense of urgency and our energy minister are committed to doing that. That was their assignment coming out of the G7 meeting.

On the issue of that very briefly, we already do enormous trade and there is enormous direct investment between the United States and Europe. We account for a big chunk of the world economy in our economic relations. That's not going to change. I think that. I think our publics both in Europe and the United States have legitimate questions when it comes to trade deals, as to whether or not it is going to benefit their countries over the long term.

And can we make sure that part one victories around consumer protection or environmental protection are preserved as opposed to weakened. That is concern in the United States as it is here. Here is what I can tell you as these negotiations proceed. I have fought my entire political career and as president, to strengthen consumer protections. I have no intention of signing legislation that would weaken those protections.

I have fought throughout my political career and I am fighting as we speak to strengthen environmental protections in the United States. I have no interest in signing a trade agreement that weakens environmental standings. So I think that there has been a lot of publicity and speculation about what might be or could be or is this provision potentially used by corporations to in some fashion weaken some of these protections or encroach on sovereign decisions that are made.

I would just caution everybody to wait until they actually see what has been negotiated before they engage in all these speculations. I think there is generally been suspicion in some quarters around trade. Some of those suspicions are unjustified. Some of them reflect old models of trade agreements that have been updated. What I can say for certain is that, because of the trading relationship between the United States and Europe, we've created millions of jobs on both sides of the Atlantic.

Growth and prosperity has advanced. There is a way of doing this right that will help us make sure that we remain at the cutting edge of innovation and growth and development. There are bad ways of doing trade agreements as well. Ultimately, all of these things will have to be subjected to scrutiny in the light of day. No point in getting excited about potential provisions in trade agreements that haven't been drafted yet. There will be plenty of time to criticize trade agreements when they are actually put before the public.

But I guarantee you, we are going to be working hard to make sure environmental protections, consumer protections that are already in place, that those are strengthened. I shared with President Van Rompuy and Barroso the fact that part of the suspicion about trade is whether globalization is benefiting everybody as opposed to just those at the top and some small segments of our economies and large corporations or small or medium size businesses.

I think it is important for us as leaders to ensure that trade is helping folks at the bottom and folks in the middle and broad-based prosperity, not just a few elites. That's the test that I'm going to apply in whether or not it makes sense for us to move forward in a trade deal. I'm confident we can actually shake a trade deal that accomplishes those things. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just on Ukraine, and I guess, the president of the European Commission can speak on the Teetip (ph). On Ukraine, we coordinated our first years of sanctions hitting individuals by --

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: All right, we are going to jump away. President Obama finishing up his remarks. And of course, there are only two questions allowed. So we are rest assured that the president for the European Council will answer the next one.

I want to bring in White House correspondent, Michelle Kosinski. She is traveling with the president. Phil Black, he is in Moscow. Michelle, I want to start with you. The crisis in Ukraine reportedly one of the top issues at this summit. It obviously is. The president spoke a lot about a united front with Europe against Russia's actions in Crimea. He also touched on perhaps the United States exporting more natural gas to Europe, but it will take time.

MICHELLE KOSINSKI, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Right. There are so many other issues to deal with surrounding simply what has happened in Ukraine. European security. How to reassure neighbors of Ukraine and Russia, that their interests are being looked after by the greater European community and the United States. Also, energy security is a big one.

I think if there was a headline to come out of this announcement, it was that the G-7 leaders are going to meet soon on that. President Obama mentioned that a large amount of natural gas from the U.S. has been released. It goes on to the open market. That's handled by individual brokers. It is not as if it is going directly to those partners who would right now get most of their gas from Russia. That's another way that the sectoral sanctions, as they talked about, if those go forward.

That European partners could be protected because we know that if there are further sanctions enacted, that that would affect not only European economies but the global economy. That's something that European leaders have concerns about as does President Obama. There are obviously a lot of topics on the table at these meetings. Not only the ones that we just mentioned but also climate change and trade.

But as you said, Ukraine was top issue. It is what is going on right now. The first speaker, the president of the European Council, he mentioned that right off the bat. I think both, the E.U. and President Obama mentioned how important the partnership is. The president of the European Council called it the bed rock on which we deal with these challenges.

President Obama called that European/U.S. relationship the cornerstone on moving forward. Both also mentioned there is still a window open for diplomacy. The E.U. mentioned it was significant, that the foreign ministers of Ukraine and Russia met during the G-7 talks two days ago. They saw that at least a small step to the fact that they mentioned it.

President Obama also reiterated that diplomacy is really the way they want to go here and left it at that. Moving on then to other subjects that affect deeply both the U.S. and the E.U. -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right, Michelle Kosinski, thanks. Let's head to Moscow now and check in with Phil Black. The president announced that if Russia doesn't behave itself, they are going to issue more sanctions against Russia. He is presented a united front with Europe. Is President Putin listening?

PHIL BLACK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A lot of what we heard from President Obama was the same message, the west united, Russia isolated. Serious sanctions in place. A lot more to come in the event that Russia does not change its behavior and he said that the path to diplomacy and talks, that is still potentially dead. I agree what he was saying there, I think, about diversifying Europe's energy is key and very significant in these terms.

Because, from the very beginning of this crisis, there has always been a sense that the U.S. has been compared to coming in harder and faster when it comes to sanctions. And that's for the obvious reason that the Europe economy is more intertwined with Russia, also because of Europe's dependence on Russian natural gas as an energy source.

He mentioned there that at the G-7, it has been a big talking point. They are all committed to diversifying Europe's energy and gas supply, looking at the possibility of U.S. as gas customer to any significant degree. That will be felt here in Moscow -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Phil Black, Michelle Kosinski, many thanks.

Let's turn our attention now to the other big story of the morning. A significant headline in the search for Flight 370. A very large possible debris field has been spotted. With clear weather today, more planes and ships are joining the search. Here is what we know.

The latest lead comes from French satellite images taken on Sunday, 122 objects were spotted. Some were three-feet in length, some almost 75 feet, about the same size as the wing of a Boeing 777. Now they are scattered across an area about the size of Denver, Colorado, almost 1600 miles off the coast of Australia. Jim Clancy is in the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur. Good morning, Jim.

JIM CLANCY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. Yes. That generated a bit of excitement here in Kuala Lumpur. It is the fourth time we have had a satellite image that indicated there was some debris in the area of the search, the area where the best calculations say Flight 370 may have gone into the Southern Indian Ocean. As a result, of course, there was a reaction.

Today, we had 12 aircraft up over that area searching. They had some positive hits. They did not -- the aircraft were not able to confirm that any of the debris that they cited was directly linked to Flight 370. This field operates or poses perhaps more hope. It is somewhat to the south of the limits of what the previous debris field or search area was thought to be.

Therefore, they are going to investigate it and investigate it very closely. It is frustrating because the image comes down from the satellite and takes days to analyze it. It comes here to Kuala Lumpur and then is sent down to Australia. The search is put underway. By that time, all of that debris has shifted. It has moved.

They have to relocate it and put a ship in the water that can get to it. They have to bring it over the side and verify exactly what it is. Then, only then, will we have a link that might be able to be traced to flight 370 itself and the all-important flight data recorders -- Carol.

COSTELLO: So frustrating. Jim Clancy reporting live from Malaysia. I want to get a little more on where this new debris field was found and why it might be so important. Let's check in with Tom Foreman. Can you talk specifically about the debris that was spotted by these French satellites?

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Sure, Carol.

COSTELLO: They are talking a lot about color to them. They seem like solid objects.

FOREMAN: Sure. Carol, all of that is important in an observational sense. Jim mentioned one of the things. The location is good. It is near where other things were found. The other thing that matters about this is the contiguous nature of it. You are talking about a box that is about 12-1/2 miles by 12-1/2 miles. That is a reachable space and a studyable space. The fact it was all together is good. This is where the search areas have been. This is where the debris has been found.

It is definitely in the right area. They have to get there and actually touch the stuff to figure out if it is the right thing. We do know this. The nature of it, the idea of a lot of little pieces. Look at this image of the TWA crash if we bring this back from when they reconstructed that, the one that happened off New York. There are some big pieces that were involved. This involved a fuel tank, which investigators say exploded. It went down in the water. That tore the plane apart.

It produces a lot of little pieces, many of which can float. If this proves to be the right thing, then a different job begins. That is the job of reverse engineering where it came from. Think about it this way. You have the plane coming in. This is what investigators are considering. They have a search area, which they draw a big grid over so they can essentially analyze where every space is. Then, they start narrowing down to specific areas. That's exactly what this would do.

For example, if this was in the middle, you might say that's the high priority area right now. If it were to the left or right, you might say those are the high priority areas. Bottom line, this sort of evidence is what they were looking for. In the entire search area, that plane would be nothing but a speck. This kind of debris field if it pays out, let's them start engineering the actual site of the plane under the water -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right, Tom Foreman, many thanks as always. Still to come in the NEWSROOM, a high-tech listening device arrives in Australia to search for that black box. Brian Todd visited the place where this thing is made.

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Carol, experts say this piece of equipment, the toad pinger locator could give search teams an advantage to find the elusive black box. That story, just ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: The clock is ticking down on when the batteries in the plane's black box are expected to start dying. If a debris field can be pinpointed in time, searchers will use a high-tech listening device to find the flight recorders or black boxes. The toad pinger locator has now arrived in Perth, Australia and will be placed aboard an Australian ship.

CNN'S Brian Todd visited the facility where that pinger locator is made. It is a fascinating story, Brian.

TODD: It is, Carol. You know, even without a confirmed piece of debris or a confirmed pinpointed location, search teams want to be ready for that, if and when it happens. They want to be ready to find the crucial black box and the pinger. That crucial piece of equipment you just mentioned that will help them do that. It has just arrived in the region.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TODD (voice-over): The U.S. Navy has only two of these high-tech listening devices and one of them is now head together Indian Ocean to help find the missing plane. It is called a toad pinger locator. It's mission, find the plane's black box with the important data recordings before the pingers die out. That's in less than two weeks.

PAUL NELSON, PROJECT MANAGLER, PHOENIX INTERNATIONAL: The facility of Phoenix International, where the toad pinger is made. This helped recover wreckage. The pinger locator with the fin on top is towed slowly through the area. It can go down to 20,000 feet below the surface. For hours and miles at a time, it is listening intently for the black box's signal.

TODD (on camera): How far away can it be?

NELSON: The outside edge is about 2 miles, a mile and a half to 2 miles away, it can detect the sound.

TODD (voice-over): If the pingers battery is fading, they can still detect it.

NELSON: The signal would come up through the umbilical. You can see here is a cable. It runs up through the umbilical. It comes into our receiver unit. We have speaker on here and all the power buttons and we can adjust the frequency it is looking for. Out of this box, we have computers set up that graphically represents the signal that you are hearing from the beacon. TODD: Then, a team on deck deploys Phoenix's other assets. An autonomous underwater vehicle scans the sea floor looking for the black box and debris often using a lawn mower search pattern.

(on camera): Once the toad pinger locator finds the black box, this is the machine that can recover it, this remotely operated vehicle that can go very deeply in the ocean with manipulator arms can pick up all sorts of debris and the black box. This one recovered the black box for Air France Flight 447.

(voice-over): With flight 370s pinger battery life ticking down each day, every moment is critical.

NELSON: Until they recover this data, it is still a mystery. They will not know what happened.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TODD: Why not just employ a lot of these pingers on different ships and blanket an entire area of the ocean. The manufactures say there are just a few of these devices in the world and they are very expensive to deploy -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Brian Todd, many thanks. I appreciate it. More on to Flight 370 in a minute. Rescuers say they have found more bodies in Washington's devastating landslide. They just can't get to them underneath all of the mud and debris. Ana Cabrera is on the story.

ANA CABRERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. The death toll is still rising. There are still dozens of people missing as the search intensifies on day four following the landslide. We will have the latest on this search and rescue as well as one family's painstaking struggle next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: We'll have more on the investigation into Flight 370 in just a minute. First, incredible pictures coming into CNN. This is the harrowing scene as rescuers pulled a 4-year-old boy out of the mud from Saturday's landslide in Washington State. The little boy was stuck in muck past his knees. The mud gripped him so tightly, his pants were pulled off. The rescuers finally freed him. Making the rescue effort so difficult, the sheer amount of mud and debris that came crashing down. The image on the left before the landslide and on the right after. The entire hillside now gone, taking an entire town with it.

CNN's Ana Cabrera joins us with more. Good morning, Ana.

CABRERA: Good morning, Carol. We are still hearing amazing stories, the strength these families have as they await answers in this awful situation and that bright light of the image of the boy being rescued and stuck with all of us as we continue to cover this story. Right now, searchers are calling this a rescue and a recovery operation. Admittedly, it has been four days since they have heard any signs of human life in the wreckage. They aren't giving up hope of a possible miracle. Meantime, that search continuing from both the ground and the air, focusing with determination, the families here are grieving.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RAE SMITH, SEARCHING FOR DAUGHTER: It's horrible because I know she is down there in the mud, in the dark.

CABRERA (voice-over): It has been the darkest four days of Rae Smith's life.

SMITH: My heart is broken. It's broken. She was my best friend.

CABRERA: Smith's daughter, Summer Rafo, is among the missing. The 36-year-old was driving to work when the massive landslide broke loose, flattening homes and crushing cars.

UNIDENTIFIED CALLER: There is a house on 530 and a big slide and it is covering the road.

CABRERA: Newly released 911 calls capture the shock and panic that overtook this tight knit community.

UNIDENTIFIED CALLER: My neighbors house has been taken out and they're trapped.

CABRERA: Four days into the search, people are still trapped.

SMITH: My family has been down there digging for her since Saturday afternoon.

CABRERA: Aaron Briet, focused and determined, charged into the disaster zone against officials orders.