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Officials: Syrian Ceasefire Set to Start in 8 Hours; White House to Retaliate against Russia for Hacking; Israel Blasts Speech on Peace Process. Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired December 29, 2016 - 10:00   ET

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

[10:00:16]

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: Turkey and Russia will guarantee the truce. Now, the United States apparently not taking part in these negotiations. Let's start there with Matthew Chance following the story out of Moscow. The U.S. has tried for years to bring some peace to Aleppo, to greater Syria, and now there's this deal without them at the table.

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that's right. I mean, the United States, are conspicuous by their absence in this deal. It was brokered essentially by Russia and Turkey, two countries that are on opposite sides of the conflict in Syria, Russia backing Bashar al-Assad the Syrian president. Turkey backing various rebel groups opposed to Assad. But they are politically speaking in unison now. They are on the same page. They have agreed to what a three deals that were announced by Vladimir Putin today. The first one is that ceasefire which as you say, goes into effect at midnight local time tonight. The second deal that's been agreed between the Syrian government and their backers and the rebels -- backed by Turkey is an agreement on how to police that ceasefire, the monitoring of it to make sure it doesn't fall apart, very, very important in such a volatile place as Syria. The final agreement that's been reached according to Vladimir Putin is an agreement for all the parties to get together with the exclusion of the United States, of course, at a peace conference to be held in Kazakhstan next month to try and hammer out a more permanent agreement to bring to an end the conflict in Syria.

So, very dramatic developments that have taken place over the course of the past several days and these announcements really could make a big difference on the ground with some caveats. The first and the biggest caveat is perhaps it's not all together clear which of the rebel groups are included in this ceasefire. We certainly know that ISIS, the Islamic State, is not included. There appears to be some debate about whether the group formerly known as the Al-Nusra Front, which is affiliated with al Qaeda, whether or not they are included or not.

The Russians certainly have not included the name of that group on their list of groups who have signed up for the ceasefire. Turkey has also said, along with the Russians, that any group that is designated as a terrorist group by the United Nations is not included in this ceasefire agreement. That would include the group formerly known as the Al-Nusra Front, called Jabhat Fateh al-Sham. But the rebels themselves have said, well, it's their understanding --- that the Al- Nusra groupings are included in the ceasefire. So, we are trying to get some clarity on that. It's important because obviously this group is the one, along with ISIS, that does the majority of fighting in Syria against the government. So, their inclusion or not will make a big difference as to whether or not this conflict is drawing to a close or whether it will continue.

BLACKWELL: The deal just announced, still a very fragile period, scheduled to start at midnight local time. Matthew Chance for us there in Moscow. Matthew, thank you so much. Let's turn to the White House now, as it prepares to hit back at Russia as soon as today, for meddling in the U.S. election. Retaliation by the Obama administration is expected to range from expanded sanctions to covert actions down the road. CNN justice correspondent Evan Perez is following this story and joins us now from Washington. Evan, the Kremlin already threatening to strike back if the U.S. takes steps against Russia.

EVAN PEREZ, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Victor. This is an issue that the Obama administration has been debating and debating internally for months and in the next few hours, we expect that we might finally hear the names of Russian officials that the U.S. wants to punish for meddling in the U.S. election. Now, U.S. officials tell us to expect new sanctions, diplomatic measures. They are expected to name individuals associated with the Russian disinformation operation that the U.S. Intelligence agencies say was at least partly focused on harming Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign and helping Donald Trump. There is also a covert action that we may never know about in which the U.S. says it can take whenever it chooses.

The Russian reaction so far, well, lies and misinformation. That's what they say the Obama administration is up to. A foreign ministry spokeswoman in Moscow says the following, "Any action against Russian diplomatic missions in the U.S. will immediately bounce back on U.S. diplomats in Russia." And of course, in just over three weeks we're going to have a new president here in Washington who doesn't believe that the Russians were behind the cyber hacks of Democratic Party organizations. And Victor, as you know, these are actions that Donald Trump, when he comes into office, he can undo them if he so chooses.

BLACKWELL: Certainly can, Evan Perez for us in Washington. Evan, thank you so much. Let's talk about all of this. I'm joined now by Juliette Kayyem, CNN national security analyst and former co-chair of the Homeland Security Cyber Review for the Department of Homeland Security and Jill Dougherty, former CNN Moscow bureau chief and Russia consultant. Jill, Juliette, good morning to both of you. And Juliette, I want to start with you and the breaking news of the morning, this Syrian ceasefire. From your perspective, considering the realities on the ground, the new realities in Aleppo, who is included and who is not included in this ceasefire deal, what's your degree of confidence that this will hold?

JULIETTE KAYYEM, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST AND FORMER CO-CHIAR OF THE HOMELAND SECURITY CYBER REVIEW: Well, it will actually just depend on the extent to which [10:05:16] Turkey remains committed to this ceasefire. I think the news coming out of this is the fact that the U.S. has essentially been written out of this peace agreement. We will see if it holds. We have tried this before, at least the United States has, and the most relevant aspect of this is essentially that Turkey that has basically been warming up to Russia over the last couple months, is willing to go it alone with Russia to get a ceasefire that they certainly want and that the Russians can basically demand at this stage.

BLACKWELL: And Jill, to you, let's talk about that. The U.S. is not at the table for these -- this ceasefire, the upcoming peace talks. What does that mean and put that into context of what it means for Vladimir Putin on the world stage as he has this ongoing conflict with the U.S. on several fronts.

JILL DOUGHERTY, FORMER CNN MOSCOW BUREAU CHIEF AND RUSSIA CONSULTANT: Well, looking - you know, why big picture, Victor, I would have to say that this puts Vladimir Putin in the position of being the peacemaker. It makes him look like the guarantor of peace in that region. That would be a huge deal. Of course, there are a lot of questions about it but politically, message-wise, it's very good for President Putin. And it sets him up with kind of a clearer picture in Syria for Donald Trump, because the whole argument that Putin has been making is, look, we should be in this together against terrorism. And if he can present that picture to the world and to Donald Trump that, you know, it's kind of black and white.

Now, we have kind of solved Aleppo, beginning to solve this terrorism problem in Syria, then Donald Trump would find it easier to come on board which is something that he's been talking about. Forget about those rebel groups. We don't want -- this is Mr. Trump speaking, we don't want to support those rebel groups. We want to join with President Putin and even as he's said, not maybe directly, but with President Assad, because the greater problem is terrorism. So, I think politically, this is very significant.

BLACKWELL: And we are hearing from the Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in a statement asking just as you served up there, to bring Donald Trump into this. "I would like to express hope that as soon as the administration of Donald Trump takes office, they will also be able to join these efforts to settle the Syrian crisis so that we could jointly work in this direction." I want to turn to the retaliation though, as well, from the U.S. government as it relates to the hacking, and Jill, I want to first come to you. Russia has already signaled that if there are -- they call them hostile acts toward Russians in the U.S., there will be for the U.S. in Russia -- the U.S. Diplomats in Russia. Here's a statement from a member of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. What does that look like? And is it the form of Putin to respond with some proportional retaliation?

DOUGHERTY: You know, that part of it is kind of worrisome because the United States, at this point, is not saying that they are going to make it difficult for Russian ambassador -- the ambassador or any of the personnel here in the United States, but Russia apparently is reading into the Obama administration, that threat to respond when they say diplomatically. And I think they are saying it's going to be personal and they are also, in a way, holding the American staff at the U.S. embassy in Moscow hostage by saying, you do it to our guys in Washington and we are going to do it to your guys in Moscow.

By the way, they are already doing it to Americans in Moscow at the embassy with quite a bit of almost psychological warfare against them, letting them know that they are being followed, making sure that they know that security can get into their apartments or anything else. So this is -- you have the cyber threat that they could make things very nasty for the United States and then you also have this kind of unpleasant worrisome personal thing about American diplomats.

BLACKWELL: Juliette, the Russians may be putting the cart before the horse here. The U.S. has to first announce what that retaliation will be, at least the part they are willing to make public. What do you expect to hear as we are expected to hear this as early as today and will this be that the proof that the Russians and even those on the Trump transition team has asked for?

KAYYEM: I don't think we will hear the proof yet. Remember, this is what's going to be announced today is separate from the review that President Obama asked of the intelligence agencies which we expect sometime in January. This is essentially saying we already have enough, we don't -- and there's going to be a covert aspect to it which we won't hear about, and then as Jill was saying, the more overt side. Now, let's just be clear here. The hack by the Russians against the United States was not sophisticated.

[10:10:16] These were phishing expeditions, especially when you think about John Podesta and his g-mail. This was not a sophisticated cyberattack. So our retaliation can be either diplomatic, as Jill was saying, it could be additional sanctions.

And when you think about how will Russia respond? Russia may respond in a totally different way just to antagonize us. So previous sanctions, for example, when we made sanctions regarding human rights violations, Putin came back and said OK, you Americans can't adopt any Russian children. I mean, so it was so sort of far afield from the substance. So, I think the Obama administration certainly may not even know the range of retaliatory actions that Putin could take because they could be far afield of a cyber action/reaction that we might be anticipating.

BLACKWELL: All right, so waiting for, again, as soon as this morning or later this afternoon, an announcement from the administration, on a portion of the retaliation against Russia. Jill Dougherty, Juliette Kayyem, thank you both.

KAYYEM: Thank you.

BLACKWELL: A Tunisian man, who was detained on suspicion of being tied to the Berlin truck attack suspect, he has been released. Officials initially thought the man was the recipient of a voice message and the picture sent by Anis Amri, the Berlin attacker who died in a shootout with police in Italy. But additional investigation showed that is not true. Germany's federal prosecutor also announced that the ISIS video claiming responsibility for the attack is -- her word, authentic. Coming up, the inauguration now just 21 days away and you can bet Israel's Prime Minister has that day circled on his calendar. How things could change after Donald Trump is president.

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[10:15:35] BLACKWELL: John Kerry's last major speech as Secretary of State may be his most memorable. Laying out his vision for Middle East peace, Kerry also pointed the finger at Israel over the failure to find a compromise with Palestinians. Israel's Prime Minister fired back, calling the speech a biased attack against his nation. Secretary Kerry did not reserve all his criticism for Israel, admitting Palestinian officials share blame for tension between the two sides as well.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN KERRY, SECRETARY OF STATE: In the most recent wave of Palestinian violence has included hundreds of terrorist attacks in the past year, including stabbings, shootings, vehicular attacks and bombings, many by individuals who have been radicalized by social media. Yet the murderers of innocents are still glorified on FATA websites, including showing attackers next to Palestinian leaders following attacks.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: CNN's Oren Liebermann joins us now from Jerusalem. The secretary intended for this to be a statement on his vision for peace, but this was received in the Prime Minister's words as a lecture and one that they did not need nor want.

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You are absolutely right, Victor. And you heard it there. Secretary of State John Kerry tried to balance this - speech. He tried to point out what he thought were the problems in the Palestinian side and the Israel side and he even talked about the Obama administration's help for Israel over the years. But on this end, on the end of the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, that very much fell on deaf ears. Netanyahu said he was, "Disappointed by the speech and felt that it was anti-Israel." It seems that Netanyahu lumps this speech in with the U.N. Security Council resolution which he still blames squarely on Secretary of State John Kerry and President Barack Obama. And there, he rejected them both outright. Here is part of Netanyahu's response.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: This conflict is not about houses, or communities in the West Bank, Judea and Samaria, the Gaza District or anywhere else. This conflict is and has always been about Israel's very right to exist. Palestinian rejection of Israel and support for terror are what the nations over the world should focus on if they truly want to advance peace.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LIEBERMANN: Netanyahu reiterated his position that it's not settlements that are the obstacle to peace but as we've seen, there's an international consensus especially at the U.N. that they are very much part of the problem. But this went beyond a speech and a response. Netanyahu took to social media where he posted a picture of President Obama at the Western Wall, one of the holiest sites for the Jewish people, back in 2008. And he posted a caption saying, "2016: U.N. Security Council calls the Western Wall occupied territory." Which we know Netanyahu blames on President Obama, and they asked rhetorically, "Seriously?" That is the point where this relationship between Netanyahu and Kerry as well as Obama has gotten to, Victor. It's certainly not moving in the right direction in these final weeks. And it looks like it's only getting worse at this point.

BLACKWELL: And it is personal, Oren Liebermann for us there in Jerusalem. Oren, thank you so much.

During a brief meeting with reporters outside his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Donald Trump weighed in on relations between the U.S. and Israel and again, blasted the United Nations, following the passage of that resolution condemning Israel's West Bank settlements. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENTIAL-ELECT: I'm very, very strong on Israel. I think Israel has been treated very, very unfairly by a lot of different people. You look at resolutions in the United Nations, take a look at what happened, they are up for 20 reprimands and other nations that are horrible places, horrible places, that treat people horribly, haven't even been reprimanded. So there's something going on and I think it's very unfair to Israel.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: CNN's Scott McLean is in Washington for us with more. Scott, good morning to you.

SCOTT MCLEAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hey, good morning Victor. Well, you can add Israel to the list that President-elect Trump and President Obama disagree on. And lately, they have taken a few jabs at one another as well. But the two men spoke by phone yesterday and if you listened to Donald Trump's description of that phone call, you would not know that there was a rough patch at all. He called it a great conversation and said the transition is going smoothly.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: He called me. We had a very, very good talk, generally about things.

MCLEAN (voice-over): President-elect Donald Trump addressing reporters outside his Mar-a-Lago estate and walking back an earlier tweet accusing President Obama of transition roadblocks.

TRUMP: Our staffs are getting along very well and I'm getting along very well with him, other than a couple of statements

[10:20:16] that I responded to and we talked about it and smiled about it.

MCLEAN (voice-over): Trump distancing himself from the Obama administration and senators who want to punish Russia for their alleged meddling in the U.S. election.

TRUMP: I think we ought to get on with our lives.

MCLEAN (voice-over): Meantime, Trump taking credit once again for a previously announced commitment by a Japanese bank to bring back and create jobs in the U.S. through investment in Sprint and a Florida start up.

TRUMP: I just spoke with the head person. He said because of me they're doing 5,000 jobs in this country.

MCLEAN (voice-over): Trump also on defense about how he will deal with potential conflicts of interest with his business.

TRUMP: You people are making that a big deal. It's actually a very simple situation. It's not a big deal and we will be having a press conference sometime in early January.

MCLEAN (voice-over): And dissolving his foundation that's currently under investigation.

TURMP: I have a foundation that's given millions and millions of dollars to people over the years and it's been, you know, very well thought of and we'll see what happens.

MCLEAN (voice-over): At the brief press availability the president- elect stood side by side with controversial boxing promoter Don King.

DON KING, BOXING PROMOTER: He shocked the world.

MCLEAN (voice-over): The former boxing tycoon weighing in on the strained relations with Israel.

KING: The Israeli flag is about peace, you know, peace in the Middle East.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MCLEAN: And we are told that Trump is expected to make another cabinet selection this week. One of the open jobs is the Secretary of Veterans Affairs. In the meantime, Trump has been doing that work himself. Yesterday, we know that he met with some top hospital officials to discuss how the V.A. should be run. One transition official says that Trump is looking at a private/public option which would allow veterans to access private health care in addition to V.A. hospitals. Victor?

BLACKWELL: Hey, Scott, I know you may not have the answer to this question. But I can't let you go without asking it. Do we know why Don King was there?

MCLEAN: Yes. We know that Donald Trump was having some sort of dinner event at his Mar-a-Lago estate with a bunch of people. So, I'm not exactly sure why Don King was there specifically or why he decided to come out with Donald Trump at that particular moment, but given his eccentric dress and the flags it certainly made for quite the photo op.

BLACKWELL: Yes, it certainly did, Scott McLean for us there in Washington. Thank you so much. Now, as we mentioned, Donald Trump seemingly shrugging off any punishments for Russia's election interference, even as some top Republican senators are vowing to levy those sanctions.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I think we ought to get on with our lives. I think the computers have complicated lives very greatly.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: All right here now to discuss, Rebecca Berg, CNN political analyst, national political reporter for "Real Clear Politics" and Amber Phillips, political reporter for "The Washington Post" political blog "The Fix." Ladies, good morning to you.

REBECCA BERG, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST AND NATIONAL POLITICAL REPORTER "REAL CLEAR POLITICS": Good morning.

BLACKWELL: -- Amber, I want to start with you. Give me an idea of, if Republicans in Congress will let the U.S., let the president, "get on with our lives."

AMBER PHILLIPS, POLITICAL REPORTER "THE WASHINGTON POST'S" "THE FIX" BLOG: No. Not when it comes to Russia. We have already seen the Senate Majority Leader, one of the most powerful persons in Congress, Mitch McConnell, come out and say it defies belief that we would not try to look into whether Russia and how Russia hacked into our elections and leaked all those Democratic e-mails.

Now, the devil is in the details here. There are some top Republicans like John McCain who want a full-fledged special investigation. Think of on the Benghazi level that the House Republicans did for Hillary Clinton. And then there are Republican leaders like Paul Ryan who say you know what, let's just do this through regular order. But either way, there's going to be investigations by Republican Congress into how Russia interfered with an election where Republican president won and that's got Donald Trump on edge.

BLACKWELL: Rebecca, let me come to you and the president potentially enacting sanctions. We read that they are trying to figure out how to use the April 2015 Executive Order to levy sanctions against Russia. If the president does that, we know the Republicans on the hill have been very critical of President Obama's use of the Executive Order. Are we expecting them to stay silent because they agree with this one, essentially cherry-picking which ones they will contest?

BERG: Well, that's a great point because this is a difficult issue in that respect. Republicans do have incentive politically to stay quiet on this because of Donald Trump's difficulty with this issue, but it would also behoove them because they have been tough on Russia in the past, to support President Obama on this issue. So, I think, we will probably see Republicans in Congress sort of get back together on this issue once Congress reconvenes, but in the meantime, stay silent.

BLACKWELL: What's the potential, Amber, for this taking over the first hundred days of his administration?

PHILLIPS: I mean, I think it's like the critical flash point between Republicans on Capitol Hill and Donald Trump and his own party. He's really becoming increasingly

[10:25:16] isolated here in America when it comes to Russia. Whether or not we hear from Capitol Hill Republicans on sanctions Obama wants to implement in his final days. They are largely with the foreign policy and Intelligence Community in that Russia is a foe, not a friend. Donald Trump increasingly appears to be one of the only people saying that we should try to get along with Russian President Vladimir Putin. We should give him the benefit of the doubt, that he doesn't trust his own intelligence when it comes to this hacking. So, he's becoming increasingly isolated and I think it could be a major flash point within the Republican Party as soon as Congress starts up.

BLACKWELL: And again, we are expecting as early as today a statement from the administration about their retaliation against Russia for their interference in the 2016 election. Rebecca, back to you in Donald Trump talking about jobs coming to the U.S., new jobs from Sprint, from another company, One Web. Let's listen to what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: So, we just had some very good news, because of what is happening and the spirit and the hope, I was just called by the head people at Sprint and they are going to be bringing 5,000 jobs back to the United States, taking them from other countries. They are bringing them back to the United States.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: Now, listening to that again, Donald Trump is announcing this as if this is new. I guess trying to take credit for these. We talked earlier that possibly is inappropriate considering these jobs were announced before the election.

BERG: Right. So there are really two problems with this. Donald Trump is claiming credit for these jobs being created and also presenting this as new information. Neither of these things is true. And I think this really illustrates one of the challenges for reporters moving forward in the Trump administration, is really diving deeper into what Donald Trump says and figuring out should we take his statement at face value or is there more to the story.

And in this case, there is definitely more to the story. Donald Trump has really made a name for himself in his business career and then in his political career as a very good marketer. He knows how to sell himself. He knows how to present himself as a very successful businessman. And he tends to get a little hyperbolic when he's bragging about his feats in business and in politics.

And I think that's something that we are going to have to be careful of in the years to come. This is an example, I think, of him overselling his involvement and his role in this. Certainly, there is some economic optimism as a result of the election and we have seen the markets rallying. But as you noted, this investment was made before the election and it's not really totally correct for Donald Trump to be taking credit in this case.

BLACKWELL: Important to point out. Rebecca Berg, Amber Phillips, thank you both.

BERG: Thank you.

PHILLIPS: Thank you.

BLACKWELL: Still to come, I mean, we just -- yesterday, were sitting here talking about Carrie Fisher, today, Debbie Reynolds, from her legendary career in Hollywood to her tragic final hours after the death of her daughter.

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