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DHS Says Heightened Threat from Extremists Over the Election; Secretary of State Blinken Holds First Press Conference; Blinken Makes It Clear How Scared Russia Is of Navalny. Aired 3:30-4p ET

Aired January 27, 2021 - 15:30   ET

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

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JESSICA DEAN, CNN WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: DHS does not have any information to indicate a specific, credible plot, however, violent riots have continued in recent days and we remained concerned that individuals frustrated with the exercise of governmental authority in the presidential transition as well as other perceived grievances and ideological causes fueled by false narratives could continue to mobilize a broad range of ideologically motivated actors to incite or commit violence.

A lot of potent words in there, Brooke, like false narratives. DHS saying that these extremists are motivated by things we've been seeing on social media that are false, these conspiracies. And they're also saying that they are motivated after that successful breach of the Capitol and that they could be targeting elected officials and government facilities. And this bulletin, Brooke, it extends all the way until April so it could be some warnings for the weeks to come.

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN HOST: I know that CNN is also reporting that, you know, several members of Congress have been given extra security in the wake of the insurrection a couple weeks ago and in some cases local police are being asked to provide an additional layer of security and have even stationed some officers outside the lawmakers' families homes and that this is affecting members of both parties which sounds really troubling.

DEAN: Yes, it is. You know, hundreds of members of Congress, and there's some real concern mostly for these newer or lesser known lawmakers who just don't receive the same level of protection as Congressional leaders. I've actually spoken with staff who say they have grown extremely cautious when even they are back in their districts, places like Wisconsin, Michigan, and some of them are getting threats on social media, and when they do these events back home they do not have any security.

So now some of these lawmakers, they're getting stepped-up security from local police, as you mentioned, at the airport, even in some cases where they live. And this week we've actually heard from two New York Congressmen. They say they have been threatened. It was Tom Reed said that he was targeted with messages of hate at his home. And just a few days ago Hakeem Jeffries said he was threatened as were his kids. So a lot of concern and of course, this DHS bulletin, Brooke, it says that these concerns will linger because the warning is out there that --

BALDWIN: Got it, Jessica. Thank you. Here he is, Secretary of State Tony Blinken.

TONY BLINKEN, SECRETARY OF STATE: Well, in all seriousness, thanks to everyone for joining me here today. This is my first full day on the job as Secretary of State, and to restate what I said before it is a deep honor to be in this job, and I am gratified that the president seemed fit to entrust me with this responsibility, and I'm incredibly excited about the work ahead. Especially working with the men and women of the State Department to try to serve of the American people and represent our country to the world.

I want to spend a few minutes with all of you today to make it clear right from the start how important I see the work that each and every one of you does.

Some of you may know that I started my career as a journalist. Obviously I didn't succeed, but it was something that I took tremendous pride and pleasure in and something I have deep respect for as a result of my own experience being on both sides of the enterprise.

You keep the American people and the world informed about what we do here. That's key to our mission as well, and you hold us accountable, ask tough questions, and that really does make us better.

More broadly and it is never more important to restate it, a free press is a cornerstone of our democracy, and this is a critical moment for protecting and defending democracy, including right here at home.

So here's what you can count on coming from me and coming from us. We're resuming the daily press briefings starting next week on Tuesday. That's an essential part of the day, and we're bringing it back. President Biden has said that he wants truth and transparency back in the White House briefing room. That fully applies in this room as well, and you'll be seeing me with a little bit of frequency, too, including on our travels together when hopefully we can get back to those travels just as you'll have an opportunity to hear from many policy experts in this -- in this building.

I know we're not always going to see eye to eye. That's not the point of the enterprise. Sometimes we'll be frustrating to you. I imagine there are a few times when you'll be frustrating to us, but that's to be expected.

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That's exactly in some ways the point, but you can count on me. You can count on us to treat all of you with the immense respect you deserve and to give you what you need to do the jobs that you're doing that are so important to our country and to our democracy.

And I will be forthright, whether it's behind this podium, on the plane or hopefully eventually, some distant part of the world. So it's an adventure. I am really, really glad that we're in it together, so welcome back to the press room. As Ned said this is your press room, and with that let me take a few questions.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you. Welcome back, Mr. Secretary, to the building.

BLINKEN: Thank you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you for your kind words about our profession earlier. I'll try to be as brief as possible. In the last couple of months of the -- of the previous administration several policies were rolled out and enacted that attracted a bunch of -- that were contentious to say the least or attracted a bunch of criticism.

I realize that almost everything is under review right now as you're less than 24 hours in, but among those things that were enacted in the last several months, which are your priorities to -- to complete the review to possibly reverse, rescind or roll back and similarly within the building apart from policy but in terms of personnel, what exactly do you intend to change, if anything, about the approach that the previous administration took to the foreign service and the people who work in this building?

BLINKEN: Thanks. Yes, you're right. We are reviewing a number of steps that were taken late in the last administration. We want to make sure we understand in each case the basis for the decisions that were made.

I will tell you that I'm particularly focused on the question of sanctions on the Houthis. I think you all know very well that the Houthis committed an act of significant aggression in taking over Sanaa some years ago and moving through the country. Committing acts of aggression against our partner Saudi Arabia. Committing human rights abuses and other atrocities. Creating an environment in which we've seen extremist groups fill some of the vacuums that were created.

But at the same time we've seen a campaign led by Saudi Arabia that has also contributed to what is by many estimates the worst humanitarian crisis in the world today, and that's saying something. And so it's vitally important, even in the midst of this crisis, that we do everything that we can to get humanitarian assistance to the people of Yemen who are in desperate need.

And what we want to make sure is that any steps that we are taking do not get in the way of providing that assistance. The Houthis controlled territory that I believe contains about 80 percent of Yemen's population, and so we want to make sure that any of these steps, including the designation don't make what is already an incredibly difficult task even more difficult, that is the provision of the humanitarian aid to the people of Yemen.

So we're taking a very urgent and very close look at that. We want to make sure that not only are American aid groups able to do what they can to provide assistance but so are aid groups around the world that are providing the bulk of that assistance and to make sure that nothing we are doing interferes with that. Particularly if it doesn't in any other way advance our policy and objective so that's the -- that's the priority in my book. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you very much and congratulations very

much, Mr. Secretary.

BLINKEN: Good to see you, Andrea.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: President Biden in his first phone call with President Putin yesterday outlined some areas of agreement such as the arms control agreement and the extension of the New START but at the same time areas of concern many which involve Russa. We are talking about SolarWinds hack, and Ukraine, of course, the investigation, the assessment of the interference into the 2020 campaign but also -- also the safety of Alexey Navalny.

BLINKEN: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And so I wanted to ask you what are the red lines under which the United States would consider sanctioning Russia if there's any harm that comes to Mr. Navalny or to the protesters as they are being arrested? You know, how front and center is this issue to you of Russian crackdown on the opposition and on human rights?

BLINKEN: Well, thanks, Andrea.

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We've as you know, already expressed our deep concern for the -- for the treatment of Mr. Navalny, specifically and more generally, with the human rights situation in Russia. And it remains striking to me how concerned and maybe even scared the Russian government seems to be of one man, Mr. Navalny.

Across the board as the president has said, we're reviewing all of these actions that are a deep concern to us, whether it's the treatment of Mr. Navalny and particularly the apparent use of the chemical weapon in an attempt to assassinate him.

We're looking very urgently as well as SolarWinds and its various implications. We're looking at the reports of bounties placed by Russia on American forces in Afghanistan, and, of course, we're looking at these questions of election interference. So all of that as the president and the White House have indicated are under review. I don't want to get ahead of where we are on these reviews.

But as I say we have a deep concern for Mr. Navalny's safety and security. And the larger point is that his voice is the voice of many, many, many Russians, and it should be heard, not muzzled.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And you're not ruling out anything if there's harm that comes to him?

BLINKEN: Not -- not ruling out anything, but we want to get -- get this full review done and then we'll take it from there.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thanks, Mr. Secretary. As head of the Correspondents Association here thank you for coming out on your first day. It's a powerful signal and does go noticed by us. Could I ask you. In your confirmation hearing you spoke in the support

of the so-called Abraham Accords under the previous administration. A couple of decisions that your administration could take I wanted to ask you about.

I understand there's a review going on about the military sales, the F-35 sales to the United Arab Emirates and sales to Saudi Arabia. How do you see those going forward? Do you plan on the F-35s eventually going forward to the UAE? And with Morocco, does the United States still recognize as the previous administration said, Moroccan sovereignty in western Sahara? Thank you.

BLINKEN: Thank you. Thanks very much. A couple of things on that. First, as we've said, we very much support the Abraham Accords. We think that Israel normalizing relations with its neighbors and other countries in the region is a very positive development, and so we applauded them, and we hope that there may be an opportunity to build on them in the months and years ahead.

We're also trying to make sure that we have a full understanding of any commitments that may have been made in securing those agreements, and that's something we're looking at right now. Generally speaking when it comes to the arms sales it is typical at the start of an administration to review any pending sales to make sure that what is being considered is something that advances our strategic objectives and advances our foreign policy so that's what we're doing at this moment.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Morocco?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The review on Afghanistan, Mr. Secretary, what are you looking at, and do you plan on retaining Ambassador Khalilzad, as U.S. envoy.

BLINKEN: With regard to Afghanistan, one of the things that we need to understand is exactly what is in the agreements that were reached between the United States and the Taliban to make sure that we fully understand the commitments that the Taliban has made as well as any commitments that we've made and so we are taking that up. And with regard to Ambassador Khalilzad, yes, we have asked him to continue the vital work that he's performing.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you so much. Good afternoon, Mr. Secretary. How are you?

BLINKEN: Well, thank you.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If I may -- good. If I may on China, how do you cooperate with China and climate change when you say you agree that it's engaged in genocide, and separately Kurt Campbell has mentioned some companies security measures such as loosening up journalist visa restrictions and reversing the consulate closure. Is that happening? Thank you.

BLINKEN: Thank you very much. We've had some opportunity to talk about this in recent weeks and recent months, and I think it's not a secret that the relationship between the United States and China is arguably the most important relationship that we have in the world going forward.

It's going to shape a lot of future that we all live, and increasingly that relationship has some adversarial aspects to it. It has competitive ones, and it also still has cooperative ones, and the cooperative ones that relationship have some adversarial aspects to it, it has competitive ones, and it also still has cooperative ones.

And the cooperative ones are in areas where it's in our mutual interests to try to work together, including manifestly on climate where it's in the interest of China and the interest of the United States and interest of countries around the world to make concrete progress in combating global warming.

And so I think and hope that we'll be able to pursue that. But that fits within the larger context of our foreign policy and of many issues of concern that we have with China, issues that we need to -- need to work through. And so I think you'll see us doing just that even as we pursue the climate agenda that is so important to our country and to the future of our planet.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hello, Mr. Secretary, (INAUDIBLE) from Reuters. I want to ask you about Iran. They said they would like the United States to lift all the sanctions first, while you said they need to come back in full compliance. So how do you plan to reconcile that, and when should we expect to open the negotiations and who would lead them for the United States?

And if I may, on China, you talked about reviews, and with respect to Uyghurs in Xinjiang in your confirmation hearing you endorsed the genocide determination. But today Linda Thomas-Greenfield said that the department's reviewing that determination. Is that only about the process, or are there different views on this determination, and should we expect some more punitive action throughout this? Thank you.

BLINKEN: So I haven't actually seen what Ambassador Thomas-Greenfield said so I can't comment on it, but my judgment remains that genocide was committed against -- against the Uighurs, and that hasn't changed.

With regard to Iran, President Biden has been very clear in saying that if Iran comes back into full compliance with its obligations under the JCPOA, the United States will do the same thing and then we would use that as a platform to build with our allies and partners what we've called a longer and stronger agreement.

And to deal with a number of other issues that are deeply problematic in the relationship with Iran, but we are a long way from that point. Iran is out of compliance on a number of fronts, and it would take some time should it make a decision to do so for it to come back into compliance in time for us then to assess whether it's meeting its obligation. So we're not -- we're not there yet, to say the least.

And then with regard to how we would engage this issue if Iran decides to come back into compliance, I can tell you that we will -- we will build a strong team of experts and we will bring to bear different perspectives on the issue.

This is something -- I would say this across the board, by the way. One of the things that I feel very strongly about is that in any of the issues that we're engaged on, in any of the issues that we're tackling and that our foreign policy has to confront, that we're constantly questioning our own assumptions and premises that we do not engage in group think, that there is as much self-criticism and self- reflection as we get from appropriately the outside. Whether it's from you or whether it's from people who disagree with the policies we're pursuing.

So I think you can expect to see this as we move forward both with regard potentially to Iran and for that matter to just about any other issue we tackle. Thank you.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You've talked a lot about restoring U.S. leadership in the world, but allies note that everything that you do could again be overturned in four years and that this -- there's a cycle that doesn't instill confidence in the long term in the United States credibility. So how can any one administration, if it can be done, assure the world that the United States can be trusted to keep its commitments?

BLINKEN: So, one of the things I've done over the last 24 hours is I've spent a lot of time on the phone already with some of our closest allies and partners in various parts of the world and that's continuing, and I -- and what I've picked up from those conversations already is a very, very strong desire for the United States to be back in the room, back at the table, working with them on the many, many common challenges we face.

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And that was almost palpable in the conversations that I've had to date, and I expect to hear more of that in the days ahead.

One of the things though, to your point is that when it comes to virtually everything we're doing -- and president has said this many times, when it comes to foreign policy, it is hard to have a sustainable foreign policy, absent the informed consent of the American people. And that informed consent, I think, comes in a couple of ways.

One is in a sense, it comes from you, because many Americans are reading about, hearing about, listening to what we're doing, thanks to you. And that's vitally important, to make sure that they are fully informed in thinking about and ultimately providing their consent to what we're doing.

But the place in our system that informed consent is vitally important is with Congress. The members of Congress are the representatives of the American people. They provide advice and consent to our policies. And I think one of the things you're going to see from our administration is working as closely as we possibly can with Congress on these issues from the takeoff. Not just on the landing. Because ultimately for these policies to be sustainable, I think we

need to try to work them as much as we can upfront. Not at the back end.

There are going to be disagreements. There are going to be places where we're just in a different place. But I think we stand a better chance in producing the kind of policies that will stand the test of time if we're working closely, up front with Congress. And we'll see where we get. But I'm determined that we do that. Thank you.

Thank you, all.

Look forward to seeing you soon and often. Really look forward to that, but not tomorrow.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'll keep you at your word on that.

BALDWIN: The press happy to be briefed there at the State Department. That is your new Secretary of State, Tony Blinken there, answering questions on myriad of foreign policy topics ranging from China, Russia, Iran, Afghanistan. I've got Max Boot, Sabrina Siddiqui, Fred Pleitgen.

But Max, I want to start with you. How did he do?

MAX BOOT, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: I think did he great. I think it was a very telling contrast with Mike Pompeo, the former Secretary of State, who often talked about swagger being his slogan, but it was really bombast, and testiness and just sheer nastiness that I think really characterized Pompeo's interactions, infrequent as they were, with the press.

And I think what's interesting about Tony Blinken's first press conference is how reasonable it was, how moderate the tone was. You just couldn't imagine Mike Pompeo telling the press how valuable they were and how important it was to listen to criticism, and to engage in self-criticism.

This is clearly a level of humility we have not seen at foggy bottom from the Secretary of State in the last four years. And as Tony Blinken said earlier in the day, this is truly a new day. One of the other things that struck me was the fact that he was just so calm and reasonable in discussing the policy options before them and, in some ways, he was quite different from the Trump administration.

For example, fairly tough on Russia. But on the other hand, he also said -- and I think this was the news item from the press conference, that he would keep Khalilzad, as the U.S. envoy to the Taliban, in that he basically, you know, endorsed the Abraham Accords, which the Trump administration was involved in.

And so he was making clear he's not going to reflexively reject what the previous administration did just because they did it in the way that the Trump administration rejected everything that the Obama administration did. So I think great start. Lot of hard work ahead, obviously. BALDWIN: Fred, to you in Moscow. Because, you know, really the first

question out of the gate, of course, on the relationship between this administration and Vladimir Putin and Alexey Navalny, of course, came up, who is behind bars. And you've been covering him --

FRED PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes.

BALDWIN: -- so much. And to hear him say, you know, his voice, Alexey Navalny's voice is a voice of many Russians. He should be heard and not muzzled. And he also said it's striking how afraid the Russian government seems to be of this one man. How do you think Russians will take all of that?

PLEITGEN: Well, I think it was certainly very important for him to say that, and I think especially the fact that he said that this is an important voice that shall not be muzzled and why would the Russian government be so afraid of one man? I think that is something that certainly will be heard here in Russia. Certainly by those in power.

And it was quite interesting after that first call by President Biden and Vladimir Putin. The Russians were saying, look, they believed there were some areas where there could be cooperation, like for instance on arms control.

But these spokesperson from Vladimir Putin, he was asked, do they believe whether or not that could be a steppingstone to better relations? They kept saying look they believe that are some areas where there could be cooperation like for instance on arms controls. But the spokesperson for Vladimir Putin, he was asked do they believe whether or not that could be a steppingstone to better relations, and they said they don't believe that at all.

Because, of course, they are seeing a new administration now that is tough on certain issues and certainly the issue of Alexey Navalny is one of those.

There were some pretty choice statements coming from the State Department, coming from the U.S. after those heavy crackdowns by riot police here in Moscow and in other cities as well as detentions in those rallies, trying to free Alexey Navalny.

Now we have to keep in mind those rallies on the face of it are there to free Alexey Navalny, but of course there's a myriad of other issues that folks who are at those rallies have as well. I was at the main rally in Moscow and a lot of people said, they believe now is their time to speak out. A lot of younger people who are saying, the only person in power that they've ever known in this country is Vladimir Putin and they believe it's important to speak out now.

At the same time you have, obviously, the state fighting back very, very hard with that big police presence. And I really think, Brooke, that this could become one of the big foreign policy issues in the early stages of the Biden administration.

If you look at just some of the things that are going to happen the next couple of days, there's going to a hearing for Alexey Navalny happening here. There's going to be another big protest, this time in from of the Russian intelligence service happening next weekend. And then another trial against Alexey Navalny on the Tuesday after that.

So that issue is not going away for Vladimir Putin and so therefore will certainly not go away in U.S./Russian relations either -- Brooke.

BALDWIN: Fred, thank you. And Sabrina, to you, we also heard Secretary Blinken talking about Yemen and calling Yemen the worst humanitarian crisis in the world. And the conflict there did not get much attention during the Trump administration. So what did you think of his saying that and how may that change things going forward?

SABRINA SIDDIQUI, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, I think it was a significant shift in both tone and substance. It is notable, of course, that President Biden has issued a temporary freeze on U.S. arm sales to Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Now, they are reviewing billions of dollars of arms sales that were approved by the Trump administration. You heard Secretary Blinken say it's not unusual, of course, for an incoming administration to review weapon sales that were approved by their predecessors.

But this is also in line with President Biden's promise as a candidate to ensure that American weapons are not further used in the Saudi-led military campaign in Yemen. which of course, has resulted in mass civilian casualties and widespread hunger.

The Trump administration, of course, was on multiple occasions criticized for having very close ties to the Saudi government. Now is this going to be a more long-term shift in policy? We don't yet know. But I think you heard several indications that you are going to see a very different approach under this administration.

We know that they have promised a much more conventional approach to U.S. foreign policy, to be more assertive in comparison to what many criticize as a more nativist approach by the Trump administration.

And so I think that's what you really heard from Secretary Blinken, vowing to restore traditional U.S. alliances, even as they are confronting numerous challenges, whether it's with the Saudis, with Russia, Iran or China.

BALDWIN: Sabrina, thank you. And Max, I've got two minutes until I need to hand it over to Jake. But I want to ask you about China. Secretary Blinken has conceded that Trump was right to take a tougher approach on China but he disagrees with how the Trump administration went about it. How can the U.S. stay tough on China but in a different way than the Trump administration?

BOOT: Well I think the China policy of the Trump administration was a mess, Brooke. Because yes, on the one hand, Trump was tough on China, he imposed tariffs. He blamed China for the coronavirus. But on the other hand, he also sucked up to Xi Jinping and told him how wonderful it was that he was becoming a leader for life and allegedly told Xi that it was great that he was building concentration camps for Uyghurs. So it was a very incoherent scattershot approach that left out the

most important element, which is U.S. allies. Because if this is going to be a struggle between the U.S. and China, we're going to lose. If it's, you know, 350 million Americans versus more than a billion Chinese, that's not a struggle we're going to win.

But if we work actively with our allies in the region, whether it's Japan or Australia, or potential allies like, you know, Vietnam and India, then it's China that's outnumbered. And so that's something that I think the Biden administration is going to emphasize, is that -- is the marshaling our allies so that we're not having to deal with China by ourselves.

And that's going to be a big difference from the go-it-alone, American-first strategy of the Trump administration.

BALDWIN: It is striking, though, just as you pointed out of the top, the juxtaposition between seeing Mike Pompeo there behind that podium and now Tony Blinken. The world is watching us very closely. Max Boot, Sabrina Siddiqui and Fred Pleitgen, thank you.

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