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Biden Predicts Ukraine Invasion, Says Putin "Has to Do Something"; Biden Suggests "Minor Incursion" by Russia Would Lead to Lesser Response Than Full-Scale Invasion of Ukraine; Biden: "Russia Will be Held Accountable If it Invades"; Weekly Jobless Claims Jumped to 286,000 Last Week; Wages Not Keeping Up with Inflation; Global Heart Group: No Amount of Alcohol Good for Heart; Fauci: COVID Vaccine for Kids Under 5 Could Come Within Next Month; CIA Releases Intelligence Assessment on "Havana Syndrome". Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired January 20, 2022 - 13:30   ET

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

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ANA CABRERA, CNN HOST: The U.S. and its allies sending a tough message to Russia today, warning again that Moscow will face severe consequences if there's an invasion into Ukraine.

Right now, Russia has more than 100,000 troops amassed along the border. And President Biden predicts that there will be an invasion.

But he's also facing criticism for a mixed message, seeming to suggest that there would be varying levels of tolerance for Russian aggression towards Ukraine.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Russia will be held accountable if it invades.

And it depends on what it does. It's one thing if it's a minor incursion and we end up having to fight about what to do and not do, et cetera.

But if they actually do what they are capable of doing with the force amassed on the border, it's going to be a disaster for Russia.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: So those were his initial comments.

The White House is in cleanup mode today. And a short time ago, the president clarified his remarks and delivered a much sharper message to the Kremlin.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: I've been absolutely clear with President Putin. He has no misunderstanding if any, any assembled Russian units move across the Ukrainian border, that is an invasion.

But it will be met with severe and coordinated economic response. Let there be no doubt at all that if Putin makes this choice, Russia will pay a heavy price.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: CNN international diplomatic editor, Nic Robertson, in Moscow. And in New York, Max Boot, a senior fellow with the council on former relations and columnist at "The Washington Post."

Nic, first, how is Russia responding?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Well, the foreign ministry, they have called essentially President Biden's estimation that Russia may invade, they have called this part of Ukrainian and Western media effort to sort of get up some big campaign that's going to cover what they describe as a big provocative action by the United States and NATO.

So they are playing that up. A slightly more diplomatic response from the Kremlin spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, who said, look, there's possibly here in what President Biden is saying here.

He implied that it gives us some reason to hope that there are some areas that we could discuss.

But I think the bottom-line takeaway from the Kremlin was that really nothing much has changed.

They are still waiting for a written response with the United States to their security concerns as they put the most demands to NATO that the United States and NATO are not going to accept.

CABRERA: Max, Ukraine was clearly upset about the remarks that the president made.

And just today, the president of Ukraine said this:

"We want to remind the great powers that there are no minor incursions in small nations, just as there are no minor casualties and little grief from the loss of loved ones. I say this as the president of a great power," end quote.

Max, did President Biden's comments shake up an already fraught process or change the trajectory of the situation, or do you think they did little in that effect?

MAX BOOT, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Well, there's no question that what Biden said was a gaffe. And it's one that the White House immediately recognized.

And they have been trying to clean it up with statements from the White House press secretary as well as from Biden himself.

And, of course, Secretary of State Tony Blinken, who is now in Europe, who just gave a speech where he vowed that there would be swift, severe and united repercussions for Russia should they invade Ukraine at any level.

So I'm not sure this actually changes the trajectory of the conflict because I think Putin is smart enough to understand that this was a slip of the tongue.

[13:35:05]

But it's also one that -- that gets at a larger truth, which is that, in fact, if Russia limits their aggression, for example, to a cyberattack, which is what I think Biden was referring to, there's not going to be the same level of U.S. and European response as there would be if Russian tanks are rolling across the border.

CABRERA: So, Max, what do you think Putin actually wants? What's he hoping to gain from all of this?

BOOT: Well, that's a great question. He's repeatedly denied that Ukraine is a separate sovereign country.

And he's repeatedly said that his ultimate goal is to basically undo what he called the geostrategic catastrophe of the 20th century, which was the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

So there's no question he's trying to reassemble the Soviet empire.

It's one thing to state his broad, long-term objectives. It's hard to know exactly what he's aiming for.

In the case of Ukraine, clearly, he wants Ukraine to be part of the Russian sphere of influence. He wants to deny it to Europe and to NATO and the United States as part of their sphere of influence.

But how far he's willing to take it, whether he's actually going to try to invade and occupy Ukraine or if he's going to try to get a land bridge from Crimea to Donbass or perhaps not invade at all, that's entirely up to Putin.

He's an absolute dictator so it's pretty hard to second guess what his immediate intensions are going to be.

CABRERA: Have to leave it there today. Max Boot, Nic Robertson, thank you both.

Turning now to the state of the economy and an unexpected jump in weekly jobless claims, which rose to 286,000 last week, the highest level since October.

CNN's Matt Egan is joining us now.

Matt, what is driving these numbers up? And how do they compare as we take a step back to where we were a year ago?

MATT EGAN, CNN BUSINESS REPORTER: Well, Ana, this three-month high in jobless claims is likely a reflection of COVID-related stress, layoffs, disruptions in the job markets. We have to pay attention to that very closely.

But the overall trend remains very strong. A year ago, about 800,000 people were filing for first time jobless claims a week. That figure has dropped by two-thirds.

The unemployment rate is heading in the right direction, down to 3.9 percent as of December. That compares to 6.4 percent when President Biden took office.

And we saw more than six million jobs added last year. That is the best for a first year of a presidency in 45 years.

And then there's stock market. The S&P 500 is up by about 19 percent under President Biden. That's a very strong number.

But, Ana, we've seen the market cool off a bit in recent weeks. And we do need to pay attention to that because households have built up a lot of wealth in the stock market during this market boom.

And you've got to wonder what happens to consumer confidence if stocks keep going down.

CABRERA: Yes. You point out that unemployment is going the right direction, stock market is going the right direction overall.

But inflation still remains a problem, right? Remains sky high. Are wages keeping up?

EGAN: Well, wage growth is hot, but inflation is even hotter.

We saw consumer prices rise in December at the fastest pace in 39 years after years of subdued inflation. We've really seen prices go up.

Prices at the pump, we know that's part of it. Gasoline prices up by 49 percent from a year ago.

But we also saw record price spikes in December for new cars, fast food, men's apparel. That means, all too often, paychecks aren't going as far as they used to.

And here's a concrete example from Anderson Economic Group. The average price of a used car rose by $6,000 between November 2020 and November 2021.

But average weekly earnings are only up by $33 over that span. That means that Americans needed to work on average five more weeks in 2021 to afford a used car.

Ana, that is exactly the kind of sticker shock that is overshadowing all the bright spots in the jobs market.

CABRERA: Matt Egan, appreciate you. Thank you.

[13:39:19] Up next, the headline that may be hard for some to swallow. A world heart organization saying no amount of alcohol is healthy or safe. Their new guidance, next.

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CABRERA: It's a sobering headline. Pun intended. According to the World Heart Federation, no amount of alcohol is good for your heart. Not even a glass of anti-oxidant-rich red wine.

The federation says a drink only increases the risk of cardiovascular problems like heart failure, high blood pressure and stroke.

Let's discuss with CNN's senior medical correspondent, Elizabeth Cohen.

Elizabeth, what is this group saying about drinking and heart health?

DR. ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Ana, I know it's so disappointing because, since the early '80s, we've heard that there are studies out there that drinking can actually be good for you. It can be good for your heart.

[13:45:02]

Unfortunately, since then, there have been studies that show that it doesn't look like that's true.

Maybe there are some elements, some flavonoids in red wine that can be helpful to your heart, but you can also eat blueberries and get the same flavonoids.

So the World Heart Federation is saying there's no known safe limits, safe amount of wine that you can drink.

Let take a look at many so of the data that they have in this report.

They say, if you look in 2019, 2.4 million deaths worldwide attributed to alcohol.

The heart problems associated with alcohol include coronary disease, high blood pressure, stroke and some types of cancer.

It's interesting, in the case of cancer, Ana, they say even just very low alcohol consumption is associated with some types of cancer -- Ana?

CABRERA: Say it isn't so, Elizabeth. I guess that gives me more motivation to give up wine or alcohol during Lent, which is what I try to do every year.

Let's talk about the pandemic because there's big news when it comes to COVID vaccines for kids younger than 5. What are we learning?

COHEN: So, Dr. Anthony Fauci said that he thinks that he is hopeful that there will be vaccines for children under 5 within about a month. That was sort of surprising because the last that we heard from

Pfizer, which was about a month ago, was when they did clinical trials for 2 to 4-year-olds, they found the dosage wasn't high enough.

And that they need -- they need to kind of change the clinical trial, amend it to include a third dose because the one that they did was only two doses.

So they have to do this sort of whole of new page of a clinical trial. And so it seems unlikely it would be within a month.

But let's take a look at what Pfizer told us today.

We reached out to Pfizer, and they said, "We hope to have results in the first half of 2022, and if successful, be able to submit for emergency use authorization shortly after."

So they are now saying within a month. And it's interesting, just a month ago, Dr. Fauci said the first quarter of 2022.

So we don't know what changed his mind. Why was he saying a month ago the first quarter, and now he's saying within a month? That's a very different time frame.

We will have to wait and see. Maybe Dr. Fauci knows something that we don't. And maybe Pfizer is more ready than they seem to be.

They haven't submitted data on children under 5 as far as we know or at least finished submitting data, so we'll have to wait and hear from Pfizer -- Ana?

CABRERA: Ultimately, it's up to the FDA to give that green light.

Elizabeth Cohen, thank you.

Today, Bob Saget's widow, Kelly Rizzo, opening up about the man she and America loved so much, including her final words to him.

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KELLY RIZZO, WIDOW OF ACTOR BOB SAGET: Everything that I've been surrounded by has been a reminder of him and, you know, a memory of him. So it's been very, very sad.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What was the last text?

RIZZO: Just I love you so much and I can't wait to see you tomorrow. And I love you so much and can't wait to see you tomorrow.

He just wanted to spread love and laughter. And he did it so amazingly, and I'm just so proud of him because he truly brought people together.

And, I mean, he was just so wonderful. I was just so honored to be his wife and to be able to be a part of it and bring him any bit of happiness that I could because he deserved it so much. (END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: Rizzo went on to say that while Saget did have COVID-19 in December, his symptoms were not anything serious. And the investigation into his cause of death is still ongoing.

For years now, U.S. spies, servicemembers, diplomats serving overseas, they have been struck with mysterious symptoms known as Havana Syndrome.

[13:48:53]

Well, now the CIA has released an intelligence assessment on these unexplained and sometimes severe medical episodes. What they found, next.

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CABRERA: Now to the mysterious something that's been making Americans sick overseas, diplomats, troops, even spies. It's the illness that has no name, but they unofficially call it Havana Syndrome.

Look at the symptoMs here. They started hitting people in the Intelligence and diplomatic communities about five years ago in a dozen different countries.

The CIA has been investigating, and now they've put out some details.

CNN reporter, Katie Bo Lillis, joins us now.

What does this report say? Can the CIA definitively say Havana Syndrome is an attack of some kind?

KATIE BO LILLIS, CNN REPORTER: The short answer, Ana, is no, not yet.

The interim findings from the CIA task force that has been investigating these mysterious incidents that have been going on for years now have been found that out of roughly 1,000 reports they had of potential episodes, the majority of them can be attributed to other things.

They can be attributed to previously undiagnosed medical conditions, for example, or environmental factors.

Now, they have found there are still a core group of about two dozen cases that they simply don't have an answer for.

They haven't ruled out they might be an attack, but they also haven't been able to find any definitive evidence that a nation state, like Russia, for example, is behind them.

Now, these interim findings both officials at the CIA as well as the State Department to include Secretary of State Antony Blinken have tried to be very explicit. They said these findings don't mean that the U.S. Intelligence

Community doesn't believe that Havana Syndrome is real or that the symptoms that its victims are suffering are any less serious.

[13:55:06]

As you pointed out, some of these victims are, in fact, quite sick. Some of them have been forced to retire as a result of their injuries.

So, you know, at this point, the CIA is still in a position of trying to understand who or what is causing these strange episodes. And more to the point, even if they are all the same thing -- Ana?

CABRERA: Still no definitive answer. That is mind-boggling.

Katie Bo Lillis, thank you.

That does it for me today. I'll see you back here tomorrow at 1:00 p.m. Eastern. Until then, you can join me on Twitter.

The news continues with Alisyn and Victor right after a quick break.

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