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Crisis in Ukraine; Bergdahl Controversy; LeBron James Cramps Up

Aired June 06, 2014 - 15:00   ET

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

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: First up, this picture, it's like an awkward Thanksgiving dinner, President Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin forced to grin and bear it as they pose for this class photo of world leaders in France, now, this moment after months of fighting words from Obama and threats of harsh sanctions over Putin's annexation of Ukraine.

They couldn't avoid each other, so they made the best of it with a face-to-face talk. Well, it happened on the sidelines of a lunch as part of the D-Day commemoration event.

So, does this lunch actually suggest a smoothing over of tension?

Take a listen to how Susan Rice responded to CNN when asked if President Obama was letting Putin off the hook too easily.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SUSAN RICE, U.S. NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: Absolutely not.

The international community, led by the United States, has been absolutely clear that Russia's behavior has been contrary to international law, as the president said repeatedly, including just yesterday.

JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: There have been these questions about his foreign policy. He described it as, well, sometimes, you hit singles and doubles and you may occasionally get a home run.

A lot critics on the left and the right describe that as uninspiring. Does the president want to have an inspiring foreign policy"

RICE: Jim, did you listen to his speech today? Did you listen to his speech in Warsaw? This is about American leadership and President Obama is deeply, deeply committed to America playing its unique role of leadership in the world, a role that no other country can match.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Well, this meeting between Putin and Obama happening at lunch was anybody but ordinary.

Another huge talk actually took place here between Putin and Ukraine's president-elect to discuss a possible cease-fire in the coming days. we will talk about that in a minute.

Joining me Now,, Christiane Amanpour, chief international correspondent, also Fareed Zakaria, host of CNN's "FAREED ZAKARIA GPS."

Christiane, I want to start with you.

And let's start with this extraordinary image of Obama and Putin, Putin world enemy number one for months. What does this tell us? Is Obama going too easy on him?

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, I'm not sure what image you're talking about because I can't see it.

But I can tell you one thing. The French television, the global pool feed from this ceremony here today put up a massive picture, a split- screen behind me of President Putin and President Obama. And there was a huge ripple of laughter and cheering and more laughter here in the crowd.

And you could see Putin and Obama recognize that they were put there. They kind of looked cross the frame at each other, but it all boils down to the fact that that they did actually have some kind of talk on the sidelines of this diplomatic and world leaders luncheon today.

But, of course, it follows one-on-one meetings that President Putin had with Chancellor Merkel, with Prime Minister Cameron, with President Hollande, and all of this is designed to tell him that he has to stop sending his fighters and arms into Eastern Ukraine.

And that's clearly the message that President Obama, we're told, reinforced and told Putin at this lunch.

The other thing that was quite hopeful and seems to perhaps maybe, hopefully move the dial is the other clear and critical image, and that is of President Putin with the Ukraine president-elect, Petro Poroshenko, and Angela Merkel. Again, it was Angela Merkel and President Hollande who engineered a meeting between those two and that has led to perhaps some perhaps discussion of maybe trying to figure out whether they can talk about a cease-fire.

And so that is a little step forward than where we were earlier this morning before they had met. And, indeed, the commander of NATO told me that when he was sitting in the stands, which are just over there from me, he saw Poroshenko speaking throughout this ceremony with the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov.

So, look, some of the ice has been broken. Some of the positions have been clearly laid out and transmitted to President Putin face to face. And the allies are saying if you don't do this, we're going to slap more sanctions on.

PHILLIPS: Fareed, I want to bring you in. We will get to Poroshenko in a second, but back to this image of Putin and Obama, OK?

Fareed, at what point will Putin pay the price for his behavior? And tell me about what this conversation was like between Obama and Putin.

FAREED ZAKARIA, CNN WORLD AFFAIRS ANALYST: I think we are turning foreign policy into some kind of a game of pop psychology.

The two of them have met many, many times. I gather from talking to senior White House officials that the conversations are always pretty practical, that Putin comes across -- the machismo that you see in his press conferences is more for public display, that in private conversations he doesn't do that.

But look at what has happened in the last few days, if you're trying to figure out who has blinked. Putin said he would never accept the new Ukrainian president as the legitimate head of government, that this was all part of an illegal coup d'etat.

He has clearly accepted Poroshenko as the new head of Ukraine. He has met with him. The Russian ambassador who was recalled from Kiev is going to back to Kiev to meet with Poroshenko and to be at his inauguration.

Chancellor Merkel has said that she will join -- she joined Obama in threatening sanctions, sectoral sanctions, that is sanctions on the energy sector, if within one month Putin does not do what Christiane was referring to, which is stop meddling using essentially KGB agents.

So, I think what has actually happened here is Putin is, you know, trying to make good with an increasingly weak hand. He is paying a price. He already is facing more capital flight out of Russia in the last two months than he has had over the last two years. The stock market is down, the currency is down.

Now, if what you mean is, is the price going to be that Western armies invade Moscow, no, of course not. But I think, all in all, what has been impressive here is that the United States and Germany, crucially, have been able to maintain a degree of allied unity.

So, once you have that, whether or that they meet for 10 minutes or 15 minutes, this is all parlor games. On substance, I think Putin is looking much weaker.

PHILLIPS: Christiane, do you agree?

AMANPOUR: Well, look, I think he blinked.

I think that is the general consensus now. He lost. Despite all the hysteria over the Russian separatists might want or what the Kiev government might do, Ukraine overwhelmingly voted for a pro-European moderate, Petro Poroshenko, somebody, by the way, who Putin probably can do business with and you saw they met.

You heard what Fareed said and all the reports about how there may be sort of certain kinds of diplomatic rapprochement around his inauguration, et cetera.

Putin does have to come out. Of course, he is sending his representative, the ambassador. But he does have to come out and publicly recognize Poroshenko and say that he recognizes this election. They have sort of said it, you know, through spokespeople from the Kremlin.

But if you look at the Bloomberg report today, right after the image of that meeting of Poroshenko and Putin came out, apparently, the Russian stock market did a little rebound and it has been really hurting over the last several months because of this.

And so money talks and Russia has become a terrible risk for people who want to invest, whether they are foreign investors or even Russian rich people are sending their money out. And so every one of these little incremental steps makes a difference.

And to an extent, he has blinked. But here's the thing. He's not going to invade Ukraine. He's not going to annex Eastern Ukraine, but unless this stops, this meddling in Eastern Ukraine, that is going to be a real problem. And they have given him a few weeks to get out of Eastern Ukraine, in other words, get his surrogates to stop, to stop with their fighters, to stop their weapons, and they're very, very organized.

According to the -- General Breedlove, who is the commander of NATO, these are not just ragtag anybody group of separatists. These are organized people in formation. And they have caused quite a few military setbacks for the Ukrainian authorities, so it's not a joke what is happening in Ukraine. And President Putin, according to Angela Merkel and everybody here, has to get them to stop or else face sanctions within a matter of weeks.

PHILLIPS: So, final thought then, Fareed. If a cease-fire does happen, does this mean that Putin got everything that he wanted?

ZAKARIA: No, not at all.

What Putin wanted was control of Ukraine, the ability to dominate Ukraine. Remember, what happened here is that the Ukrainians wanted to essentially break free of Russian domination. And he tried to stop that. He tried to stop it first by bribing them with a 15 -- $14 billion, $15 billion bribe.

When the president of Ukraine tried to take that, that president was ousted. And now they have elections. They have a new president who is very pro-Western, determined to keep Ukraine on a track of having more of an association with the West.

What Putin has gotten out of all of it, all of it is a Navy base in Crimea, which is going be expensive. No, on the whole, I think Putin has not gotten a particularly good deal. Here is the biggest thing he has lost. He has permanently alienated the Ukrainian people.

I think that we forget about this here. Ukraine, which was really 50/50 in many ways in its attitudes towards Russia, now Ukrainians really worry about Russia trying to invade them, Russia trying to dominate them. That's true of course in Poland and Hungary.

Putin has alarmed people about Russia's intentions all across Eastern Europe and parts of Central Asia. So I don't think he has won very much. But I do want to say, in closing, since we are watching these ceremonies, that, for all that said, it's appropriate that the leader of Russia be honored at an event that marks D-Day and Normandy, because let's not forget the Russians in terms of human sacrifice lost more people in World War II than the United States, than the United States, France, everybody put together.

Russia paid an enormous price and, by the way, so did Ukraine. And it's only appropriate that the leaders of those countries should be honored.

PHILLIPS: Fareed, Christiane, thank you both so much.

Just ahead, developing right now, he was prepared for war. A man drives up to a courthouse, throwing out spike strips, gas grenades, firing shots. Police now say his home may be booby-trapped.

And Bowe Bergdahl hasn't spoken with his family yet, but we are just learning he is free to speak with them now. When they could talk, we will talk about that next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Well, Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl, the American soldier held by the Taliban for nearly five years, we're told, is improving at a hospital in Germany.

And just a short time ago, a U.S. official said that he has progressed to the point where he is able to speak to his parents.

Let's get straight to our CNN's Ed Lavandera. He's in Bergdahl's hometown, in Hailey, Idaho.

So, Ed, any word yet if he has spoken with his parents or how soon that could happen?

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, we have been told by their military liaison that has been working with the family for the last five years that he does not think that that phone call has taken place.

And you have to wonder at this point -- it has been almost a week since Bowe Bergdahl was rescued -- whether or not the family is waiting to actually just wait and do this initial meeting in person. But every indication we have so far is that they still have not spoken by phone, even though military officials are saying there is nothing preventing them from doing that.

But Bob Bergdahl, Bowe's father, did say that there would be a process that they would follow. And it sounded like, when he last spoke on Sunday, Kyra, that they were going to follow the recommendations and the suggestions of the military. So, it could very well be that this is what they're being advised to do. We just don't know for sure at this point.

PHILLIPS: Do we know what those suggestions are? And, also, we say that Bergdahl is improving. Do we know exactly what that means?

LAVANDERA: Well, the medical -- the Army officials in Germany are saying that his health is improving daily, that he's talking with the medical staff and becoming more engaged in his treatment process.

And once they're done with that stage in Germany, that's when he will be flown to the medical -- the Army medical center in San Antonio, Texas, where Bowe Bergdahl's parents will then fly to and reunite with him there.

My colleague Barbara Starr at the Pentagon, Kyra, says that that initial meeting is one of the most traumatic and emotional aspects, and when they do get together for the first time, that it's very likely that that meeting will only last a couple of minutes.

PHILLIPS: Right. We're going to talk actually more about that, Ed, with someone who knows what it's like to go through that coming up in just a few minutes.

Ed Lavandera there in the hometown. You can see the all the signs behind him waiting for Bowe to come home.

And tonight at 10:00, you can watch CNN's special on Bowe Bergdahl. Jake Tapper takes a look at who Bergdahl's life -- or what his life was like, rather, before the war.

So, first the air conditioning failed. Then the heat took LeBron James down. The basketball giant complained of man cramps and he just left the game. Now the question on sports radio is, is he being a wimp? Well, Spurs fans sure think so. We're going to talk with Rachel Nichols live all about this next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: So it's called LeBroning.

Here's what happened. Miami NBA All-Star LeBron James is taking a lot of heat now for leaving game one of the NBA Finals last night at a critical point in the fourth quarter.

Apparently, he got a really bad leg cramp and he had to be carried off the court, as you can see here. Well, as you can imagine, social media had a field day. And the parodies are nonstop. Some haters even suggest that the future Hall of Famer is a wimp and doesn't even have a heart of an All-Star.

But here's the deal. There was no A.C. during most of the game inside San Antonio's AT&T Center. It actually broke down. Fans were sweating as much as the players, we're told. And at times, players were running up and down the court in 90-plus degree temps. All right?

We put it in perspective now.

CNN Sports' Rachel Nichols is with us.

So, lay it out. Unsafe working conditions or is LeBron being a wuss?

RACHEL NICHOLS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I was hot in that building. I just want to lay that out there. I'm going to admit it. It was really, really hot.

(LAUGHTER)

PHILLIPS: But did you get cramps?

NICHOLS: And the NBA Players Association has -- I did not cramp, but I -- but my typing fingers don't do as much work as those basketball players running up and down the court. I'm OK admitting that.

The NBA Players Association did come out today and said they did think it was unsafe working conditions. We heard from some of LeBron's teammates this afternoon saying they were worried they were going to get heatstroke and that if a player had collapsed on the court, everybody would be singing a very different tune.

Of course, LeBron did kind of collapse in a way, just with those severe leg cramps. And he has had a history of this. He cramped up a lot actually in hot conditions in high school.

Then there's been a couple NBA games where he did do some cramping, most notably in the 2012 NBA Finals. So, this is the second time in the NBA Finals he's had cramping issues and he just couldn't go. He joked today. He said, my body told me no more jumping for you.

And he took 2.5 bags of I.V. fluid after the game. In fact, he said, I didn't sleep. He was up all night going to bathroom because, of course, he had taken in so much fluid. But it didn't help him during the game, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Sometimes, that can be a little more painful.

All right, but, OK, so players are coming forward, like Tony Parker, right?

NICHOLS: You want information. I am giving you information.

(CROSSTALK)

PHILLIPS: OK. You're just laying out the facts here.

All right, well, what about other players, what they're saying, Rachel, like Tony Parker, right? He said in the European league, that they never had A.C. Then you got Chris Bosh saying that, hey, I grew up in Texas. We couldn't afford to have A.C. at the gym. We played in heat like this.

And then the original Boston Garden, you remember, that place was always steaming. So, is it a legitimate issue?

NICHOLS: Yes, I mean, that was a tactic with the old Boston Garden, absolutely.

PHILLIPS: Let's sweat them out.

NICHOLS: I spoke with Pat Riley just causally today.

Yes, absolutely. And when he was with the Lakers, they would crank it up in the Boston Garden. They would turn down the A.C. They would crank up the bad conditions for them. He said it was five times worse back in the old days.

But, look, every player's body reacts a little bit differently. There have been some people coming out today saying that, hey, LeBron's lean muscle mass makes him more susceptible to cramps. I'm not a doctor. I don't know if that is true. LeBron said that he was tested for this in high school because he did used to cramp up so much and that all tests came back that there was nothing wrong with him.

He just tries to be on top of it with getting in the extra salt intake that you lose when you sweat, extra potassium, water and stuff before games, but obviously couldn't manage it enough last night. And every player has said -- even Tony Parker and members of the Spurs who have said, hey, they are more used to the hot conditions, that once you do cramp, there is nothing you can do.

So, for any of this Internet chatter that he should have played through it, that is just physically not possible. Every basketball player has backed LeBron up on that.

PHILLIPS: I'll tell you what. There's a lot of people that can relate to cramps, women included.

(LAUGHTER)

PHILLIPS: Rachel, thanks so much.

Her show "UNGUARDED" airs tonight 10:30 Eastern right here on CNN.

All right, just ahead, developing right now, he was prepared for war. A man drives up to a courthouse, he throws out the spike strips, gas grenades. He's firing shots. Well, police now say his home may be booby-trapped. We're going to take you there live.

Plus, the pope has a message to married couples: Raise kids, not pets. But our next guest says the pope is wrong and says more people need to remain childless.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Well, we showed you the awkward photo at the beginning of this hour.

Now we have the video. We're talking about Obama and Putin actually having a conversation here. I'll tell you, there are a lot of leaders, a lot of journalists that would love to know what they were saying to each other. The first bit of video just coming into here at CNN, this is before the lunch where they met with the heads of state.

Apparently, it's at the French palace, and you know it's the crisis in Ukraine, all the months of tension between these two leaders, so many people wanting to know what is being said right here. We're on it and we're following it.

All right, let's talk about married couples without kids. Listen up, OK, because the pope has a very strong message for you: Pets are no substitute for children.

Francis has been a popular pontiff, as you know, since taking over as pope, but the message that he delivered this week, it is creating a lot of criticism and a lot of talk.

Here is a bit of what Francis actually said -- quote -- "This culture of well-being from 10 years ago convinced us it's better not to have children. It's better that you can go explore the world, go on holiday, you can have a villa in the countryside, you can be care- free."

Well, then he goes on to say: "Then, in the end of this marriage" -- or this -- "the end of marriage comes to old age in solitude, with the bitterness of loneliness."

Did you get all of that? I probably fumbled the quote.

But I want to bring in Daily Beast contributor Amanda Marcotte. She will not bumble the quote. She has plenty to say about what the pope said.

And, basically, it's a call for procreation over pets. Amanda, he was touted as a progressive pope. Do you still think he is after hearing this?

AMANDA MARCOTTE, THE DAILY BEAST: I think the progressive thing has been overblown from the beginning. He is certainly, like, more progressive on certain economic issues than his predecessor, but he has the same attitudes about birth control, gay rights and, yes, like whether or not married couples should be allowed to be childless, as his predecessor.

PHILLIPS: Well, you wrote in your blog -- you said: "My first instinct, as a deliberately childless person myself, upon Pope Francis' remarks was to think, if you could think having children is so important, then why don't you go first?"