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U.S. Puts Troops on Alert; Wesley Clark is Interviewed about the Situation with Russia; U.K. Prime Minister Under Police Probe; Pfizer Begins Omicron Vaccine Trials; Judge Strikes Down New York State's Mask Mandate. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired January 25, 2022 - 09:00   ET

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

[09:00:25]

BIANNA GOLODRYGA, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everyone. I'm Bianna Golodryga.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Jim Sciutto.

This morning, thousands of U.S. troops are now on alert, prepared for possible deployment to eastern Europe in a matter of days. This as U.S. and NATO allies prepare as well for a potential Russian invasion, further invasion, we should say, into Ukraine.

The Defense Department announced that most of those 8,500 troops would bolster NATO's quick response unit, which could be activated soon, but also emphasize that no final decision on deployment has been made. We should be clear, these are not U.S. forces going to Ukraine to fight Russia, but rather to bolster existing deployments among NATO allies.

White House Deputy National Security Adviser Jonathan Finer told CNN last hour that all systems are go.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JONATHAN FINER, WHITE HOUSE DEPUTY NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: The alliance will make decisions about force posture adjustments, but they're ready to go at a moment's notice when the alliance decides. And, you know, the important thing to point out is, this is not an aggressive step by NATO. This is a defensive step.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GOLODRYGA: The question is, how will Russia view this step?

The latest step to reinforce security on NATO's eastern flank comes after President Biden held a video call with European leaders on Monday. The president stressing there was unanimous resolve among allies on that call.

On the ground in Ukraine, CNN has learned that the U.S. Marine Corps has bolstered security at the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv. The move comes just days after the State Department ordered family members of embassy to leave the country.

It also comes as the Defense Department warns that Russia continues to add battalion tactical groups to the border with Ukraine and neighboring Belarus.

We are covering all of the latest developments this morning. And we begin at the Pentagon with CNN's Barbara Starr.

Barbara, as we said, as many as 8,500 U.S. troops now on heightened alert. No final decision as to when to deploy and if. But what type of forces are we talking about exactly?

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, we're talking about the kinds of forces that are equipped and ready to move very quickly. The military has a number of units that specialize in that very issue, moving to contingencies overseas on just potentially hours' notice, if it comes to that.

So, what are we looking at? We're looking at potentially ground combat brigades, aviation, intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance, logistics, medical capability, support capability, the kinds of things that these countries on NATO's eastern flank are going to be so interested in having the U.S. provide along with NATO to bolster them.

And you're exactly right, of course, this is not about Ukraine, actually. It is about the defense of eastern Europe. Think the Baltics, Poland, Romania. We don't know what countries yet. Most of the U.S. troops are earmarked, we're told, for that NATO response force, if the alliance makes the decision to activate that force. But there is actually still the possibility that some U.S. forces could go essentially unilaterally, bilaterally to other countries, who agree to accept that defensive help.

The U.S. very much emphasizing this is a defensive measure, but also saying that the U.S. troops would be ready for any contingency.

SCIUTTO: And important to note, as Barbara noted, these are not U.S. combat forces going to Ukraine to fight Russia, but rather to bolster existing deployments among NATO allies.

Clarissa Ward is in Kyiv.

And, Clarissa, it's been interesting because Ukrainian officials have not been shy about expressing dissatisfaction with some U.S. NATO moves, satisfaction with others. They're happy to see these troops going to eastern Europe. They have not been happy as of yet with sanctions or when sanctions might be imposed on Russia.

What did the foreign minister tell you this morning?

CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: So, we sat down with Dmytro Kuleba and he basically said that he feels it's very important to project strength when you're dealing with President Putin. That President Putin really only responds to and respects strength. And that's why Ukraine really welcomes this decision to put these 8,500 troops on heightened alert to potentially be deployed in eastern Europe.

He did say that there are areas where there are clear differences with the U.S. We mentioned the embassy personnel, the decision to withdraw their families. He said he thought that was premature. He admitted to being actually annoyed by it.

And there was one interesting conversation that we had in particular on the diplomatic process. We asked about, what will happen if concessions are given by the U.S. to Russia in order to try to facilitate some kind of diplomatic compromise that will ultimately impact Ukraine, because Ukraine, obviously, does not have a seat at this negotiating table.

[09:05:14]

Take a listen to what he told me.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DMYTRO KULEBA, UKRAINIAN FOREIGN MINISTER: If anyone makes a concession on Ukraine, behind Ukraine's back, first we will not accept that. We will not be in a position of a country that picks up the phone, hears the instruction of the big power, and follow it. No.

We paid a lot, including 15,000 lives of our citizens, to secure the right to decide our own future, our own destiny. And we will not allow anyone to impose any concessions on us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WARD: Minter Kuleba went on to say that the U.S. has already made concessions in its dealings with Russia in previous diplomatic negotiations. And he said that if anyone comes to Ukraine and comes to Kyiv demanding that Ukraine make further concessions, he will literally, in his words, instruct the protocol guy to escort or accompany him back to the airport.

So, the Ukrainians really not mincing words here, Jim, being very clear about their intention to take a position of strength here, even though they're not at that negotiating table. They're also not going to be pushed around and told what concessions they will have to make.

GOLODRYGA: Yes, a really defiant message there from the foreign minister. And you're right to note that President Zelensky had asked repeatedly for a three-way meeting with President Biden and President Putin. And, of course, that did not happen.

Let's turn now to the White House. Jeremy Diamond is there.

And, Jeremy, the Biden administration will hold, we hear, two classified briefings today for congressional staff on this Ukraine crisis. What more do we know about the information that would be presented?

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Bianna, these briefings are going to be for the staff of the House and Senate leadership and committees. And they're going to be classified briefings. And it comes, of course, at a critical time, not only as the U.S. has put on alert these 8,500 troops, but as they are also putting the finishing touches on these sanctions that Russia -- that would be imposed on Russia should Russia move to invade Ukraine in the coming days and weeks.

These are not the first briefings that the White House has given to House and Senate staff or membership. It's the latest in a series of dozens of engagement the White House says that they have had with Congress since December.

But, again, the possibility of troops being deployed now to bolster NATO allies in eastern Europe will hang heavy over this meeting.

Interestingly, we heard the White House Deputy National Security Adviser John Finer, and he made very clear that the deployment of these 8,500 troops would come with the consultation and decision being made by the NATO alliance at large, not necessarily a unilateral U.S. troop movement, though, of course, as Barbara noted, there is still that possibility of additional separate forces being sent unilaterally by the United States to bolster those defenses.

But we know that the president himself has also had engagements, including with the heads of the Foreign Relations Committees. He has spoken with them himself.

As for the president himself, we're not expected to see him today. Yesterday, questions were posed to him on this question of Ukraine and Russia, but he is staying tight-lipped right now at this moment of extraordinary tension, of course, and uncertainty.

Bianna.

SCIUTTO: Jeremy Diamond, Clarissa Ward, Barbara Starr as well, thanks so much to all of you.

For more on this, let's speak now to CNN military analyst, retired General Wesley Clark. He's the former NATO supreme allied commander.

General Clark, good to have you on again this morning.

GEN. WESLEY CLARK (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Thank you, Jim.

SCIUTTO: To date, U.S. NATO moves have been if moves. In other words, preparations to further deploy these troops, preparations for economic sanctions. They're not preemptive. You've heard criticism from Ukrainian officials saying sanction now, right? Make these moves now to deter. And I wonder, in your view, is it a mistake to wait? Does it give Putin the initiative, right, by waiting for further action before the U.S. and NATO respond?

CLARK: Well, I think it is important to push for more active deterrence. But, the governing principle is, alliance unity is the most important thing of all. There's a lot of work going on behind the scenes, Jim, to bring Germany and France online. Germany and France are meeting today at the (INAUDIBLE) level to talk about the situation.

Look, we're not going to intervene militarily in Ukraine. The president has said that. Our allies know that. But what really will deter Putin is NATO resolve.

[09:10:02]

And this means we're all in this together. So, we have to bring consensus among our NATO partners and go step by step into this.

When I was a commander in 1999, we had the same problem, moving against Slobodan Milosevic, it took step by step work to bring the Europeans on board. We knew ethnic cleansing was happening then in Kosovo, but you couldn't simply snap your fingers. If you want an alliance, and it's an alliance of democracies, you have to respect the democratic processes in each of these countries.

GOLODRYGA: So, General, to that point, we are expecting to see a written response from both the United States and NATO to Russia's demands about the future of both the Ukraine and NATO expansion.

What should those responses look like?

CLARK: Well, they're going to say, diplomacy is still open. We're happy to talk about things like missile positioning. We want to talk about strategic nuclear in a U.S./Russia bilateral, perhaps, but we're not going to say that NATO won't admit new members. We're not going to say that NATO will roll back its task forces that are deployed into the former countries of the Warsaw Pact or the Baltic states. And so -- so, it's going to be a mixed message back to Moscow.

This is all part of the game that Mr. Putin's playing. We don't know whether he's going to actually launch his military or not. If he can get what he wants, without putting a military in, that's what he wants. And so he ratchets up the pressure. He goes behind the scenes to different countries to see, is there any daylight there, can I -- can I shake up a government? He's going to run demonstrations in Ukraine against Mr. Zelensky. He's going to try to create civil disturbances there. It's all part of the game.

It's no different than in football when you're the quarterback, might give a, you know, hut two, hut two and try to draw the other team offsides before the play starts. Mr. Putin wants to draw us offsides. He wants to -- to shatter NATO or shatter Ukraine before he ever moves. And then maybe he gets his own government in Ukraine, he thinks. Maybe he can control it that way with just putting a few team (ph) members (ph) in.

But he's building up the force, and there's -- there's a number of us who feel that actually what he probably wants to do is use that force, show it off. (INAUDIBLE) Ukraine is the punching bag to intimidate the west. He's got the military. It's going to be tough. SCIUTTO: OK.

GOLODRYGA: Yes.

SCIUTTO: General Clark, a lot of the focus has been on a clear-cut ground invasion, that is rolling tanks like those pictures we just played on the air across the border. But there are a whole host of options short of that or prior to that, right, the massive cyberattack. They've used that playbook before against Estonia. Air strikes. Further reinforcing the forces they already support in eastern Ukraine, you know, the so-called separatists there.

Do you believe it's a mistake to imagine the only outcome is a full scale invasion? Are there options short of that, that Putin might use and consider in advance?

CLARK: Well, he could use options short of that, but you don't know that he won't then make that just phase one and move to a phase two. So, when this unfolds, you don't know what the end result might be.

You know, he's continuing to reinforce forces into Belarus. So if you were in the Baltic states, you'd be looking at these forces coming in. If you were in Lithuania, let's say, or Poland, and you'd be saying, this is a real concern. So, you don't know what he's going to do.

And this is part of Putin's strategy. He's a Wiley (ph) strategist. So, you have to keep in mind, though, that as he builds up these forces with the overpowering air capabilities, his air defense and his long range missile capacity, he does have the capacity to knock out Ukraine's -- most of Ukraine's high tech defense. He'll have to fight people on the ground, but the ground's frozen there, he can move those tanks through the swamps north of Kyiv. He could have forces outside Kyiv and, if they weren't actively resisted, in a day.

GOLODRYGA: Yes, look, another option for him would be to weaponize energy, which he's done in the past as well. It raises a big question as to why NATO, at this point, and European countries there are not more energy independent. I know this is something that you've raised in the past as well.

We'll have to leave the conversation there. We'll continue to cover it and we'd love to have you join us again in the future.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

GOLODRYGA: General Wesley Clark, thank you.

CLARK: Thank you very much.

GOLODRYGA: Well, up next, the partying prime minister. Details emerging this morning of yet another party that Boris Johnson attended while he was enforcing a Covid lockdown for the rest of the country. And now police are investigating.

SCIUTTO: Yes, police investigating. That's quite a development.

Plus, Florida shuts down all of its monoclonal antibody treatment sites in response to some new guidance from the FDA.

[09:15:07]

Remember, Florida had been leaning on those for some over vaccines.

And later, the attorney who helped craft former President Trump's bogus theory to overturn the election may have thousands of his emails released to the January 6th committee. Details on what could be inside of them.

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SCIUTTO: U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson says he welcomes the London Metropolitan Police's decision to investigate several events that may have violated Covid restrictions at number 10 Downing Street. I'm sure he does welcome them. CNN affiliate ITV is reporting two gathers were held at Downing Street in June 2020 during lockdown.

[09:20:05]

Those gatherings to celebrate Boris Johnson's birthday.

GOLODRYGA: And we're learning more this morning that the new police investigation could delay the findings of an internal government probe.

CNN international correspondent Scott McLean is live in London this morning.

Scott, I don't even know, are we at number seven or eight?

SCIUTTO: Yes.

GOLODRYGA: How many parties have we uncovered at this point? And what is the prime minister saying now?

SCOTT MCLEAN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, so it's just the drip, drip, drip of one allegation after another. Things are certainly getting complicated. As you mentioned, this civil service report was expected to be released this week into the investigation into all of these parties. But now things have gotten a lot more complicated since things have been turned over to the London Metropolitan Police.

And for weeks they have insisted that it is their policy not to go back and retroactively investigate. But now it seems abundantly clear that there is an exception to be made in the name of public interest.

And what's really telling here is the criteria that the chief of police used to justify this investigation. Two of them include clearly being no reasonable defense, and evidence that people knew that what they were doing was against the law. It's hard to claim ignorance when, of course, you are the ones making the laws.

Now, the prime minister is trying to shrug this all off, change the channel, kick the can down the road, whatever you want to say. But, obviously, headlines like this certainly do not help. This is one of the tabloids, "The Mirror," "prime minister's number 10 birthday bash in lockdown," not technically lockdown, but there were severe restrictions on social gatherings, including a ban on gatherings indoors. And this one, "you can't have your birthday cake and eat it too."

So the government has tried to get creative in how they defend themselves. The prime minister had the transportation secretary trying to explain all of this away this morning.

Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GRANT SHAPPS, U.K. TRANSPORT SECRETARY: He didn't organize a party. Someone presented a cake to him.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Cake and singing. Happy birthday, Mr. Prime Minister, happy birthday to you.

SHAPPS: It was his birthday. And these are people that he worked with all the time. As I said, I don't seek to defend it. This is for Sue Gray (ph) to decide on whether this was appropriate.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MCLEAN: Now, Sue Gray is the civil service -- the senior civil service member who's leading that investigation.

It's important to keep in mind here though that, look, legal jeopardy is not Boris Johnson's big problem right now. If this police investigation were to find that he broke the law, chances are the punishment would be a fine, perhaps a series of fines. The bigger problem for the prime minister right now is the fact that it would say unequivocally that the prime minister did break his own laws at the time, which were taken very seriously by the authorities, and that might prompt a lot of his own MPs to vote for a confidence challenge to his own leadership. And soon we may have a new prime minister.

Jim. Bianna.

GOLODRYGA: Wow.

SCIUTTO: Yes, to have a police investigating, truly remarkable, the prime minister's own party.

Scott McLean, thanks so much.

New this morning on Covid, Pfizer and BioNTech have announced they are starting a clinical trial for an omicron-specific Covid vaccine.

GOLODRYGA: Yes, this could be a major development.

CNN's senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen joins us now.

Several cities have already passed the omicron peak.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

GOLODRYGA: So as welcome as this news may be, will it make a significant difference at this point?

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: You know, it's interesting. It is unclear what kind of difference an omicron-specific vaccine would make. As you said, by the time this comes out, many -- much of the country will have passed its omicron wave, because those waves come and go. You know, they're very intense, but they come and go very quickly. So the question is, are we fearing omicron for next year, or the year after? Is that what it's for? And how useful would it be in that situation? That case has not really been made. But we do know that Pfizer says that they're already making the vaccine and they're testing it in a clinical trial. So, let's take a look at what they're -- what they're doing in this clinical trial.

They say that they're going to have up to 1,420 participants and they'll divide them up to groups -- up in groups. So, group one has already had two doses of Pfizer just in their regular life, not as part of the trial. And then Pfizer, in the trial, will add one or two omicron doses to see what happens. A second group, well, they've already had three doses. So, two doses, plus a booster. And in the trial they'll give them either one more regular dose or an omicron dose. And then group three is a group that's completely unvaccinated, never got vaccinated during the pandemic, and they'll be given three regular omicron doses and then they will see how these folks do, do they get sick with omicron. So there's a lot of different groups here, a lot to keep track of. It will be interesting to see what's most effective. And then if you put this in terms of the real world, is it even necessary?

SCIUTTO: Yes.

COHEN: How useful would this be?

GOLODRYGA: Yes.

SCIUTTO: Yes, because booster folks with the current vaccines have done really well against omicron. That's been -- that's been one of the good things about all this.

COHEN: Exactly. Right.

SCIUTTO: All right, I want to talk to you about something else because one way that the vaccine hesitant have sort of gotten around this is talk of monoclonal antibody treatments.

[09:25:06]

And you've heard politicians back that up too, including in Florida. The governor saying, hey, we're going to have a lot of that if you don't want the vaccine. So, notable now the state of Florida shutting down its antibody treatment centers. Why? And how significant?

COHEN: You know, it's interesting because the state of Florida put out this press release, but they missed the most important thing, they didn't put in there what monoclonal treatments were being used in these clinics because there's some monoclonal treatments that are worth not using because they don't work particularly well against omicron. And then there are others that actually are useful during the omicron wave. So, let's take a look at sort of what the deal is right now with monoclonal antibodies and omicron.

So, if we take a look at ones that are not recommended against omicron, those are ones -- those are monoclonal antibodies made by Regeneron and Eli Lilly. They worked well during delta, but they didn't work well against omicron. So the NIH has said basically don't use them. So, if Florida's getting rid of those two, that actually makes sense because Florida, like most of the country, is like 99 percent omicron. So, why use those two?

However, there are two that are useful. And one of them is called Sotrovimab, and that's used for treatment and that has been useful during omicron. The other one is called Evusheld. And that's actually prevention and it's intended for people who are immune-compromised because for many people in that group, the vaccines haven't worked very well. So Florida has made this sort of big fanfare about, you know, oh, the federal -- because of what the federal government has done, we're going to shut down these clinics. It's like, well, if you were giving treatments that weren't working, then kudos, that's probably smart that you shut down the clinics.

But what about the two that do work? What are you doing with those? Because Florida, like every other state in the country, has doses of those. What are they doing with them?

GOLODRYGA: Yes. And is there enough supply of just those two treatments, right, at this point to be effective throughout the country?

COHEN: Right. There aren't.

GOLODRYGA: Right. Exactly.

COHEN: There aren't. Right. Right, there aren't.

GOLODRYGA: Elizabeth Cohen, thank you. Thank you, as always.

COHEN: Thanks.

GOLODRYGA: Well, a state supreme court judge has struck down New York's statewide mask mandate. Big news here in New York. The judge ruling that the order is unenforceable because the governor did not have the authority to issue it in the first place.

SCIUTTO: You know what's interesting, though, I go to New York City, most people still wear those masks.

CNN's Jean Casarez joins us from New York.

So, Jean, notable comments from the judge here. What were the key issues?

JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, this came down late yesterday. And you can imagine it was a bombshell last night.

The judge is really ruling on a procedural level, not on the merits of the case. And he is saying that it's unenforceable because when it was made by the governor that all of the citizens of the state of New York must wear a mask in the prevention of Covid-19, New York was not under the state of emergency. And because of that, the proper way to do it would have been to go to the legislature, elected by the people, and they would make the decision. And because that wasn't done, it can't be enforced.

And it is true that it was in November that the New York state health commissioner actually created the regulation that everyone had to wear these masks. Now, the judge said, and it's Judge Thomas Rademaker of the New York Supreme Court in Nassau County, he says, quote, to be clear, in his ruling, the court does not intend this decision in any way to question or otherwise opine on the efficacy, need or requirement of masks as a means or tool in dealing with the Covid-19 virus. The court decides only the issues of whether the subject rule was properly enacted, and if so, whether the same can be enforced.

Now, we did learn that the New York State Department of Education says they're aware of this, that they understand that the Department of Health is going to go to court immediately today to appeal this ruling and, therefore, to get conceivably a stay so that everything will stay status quo. But in the meantime, we're hearing that at least six districts, parents have been told that masks are optional today for their children, but that it most likely will be changed if this stay is put into place.

But, obviously, it sets a precedent and it's the governmental balance of powers. And it will be very interesting to see how this turns out in an appellate court.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

GOLODRYGA: Yes, created quite a frenzy and, I would imagine, quite a few panicked parents as well.

Jean Casarez, thank you.

CASAREZ: Thanks.

GOLODRYGA: Well, still ahead, the New York City mayor responds to criticism of his blueprint to combat gun violence. Why he says the plain clothes police unit will be different than before.

And we are moments away from the opening bell on Wall Street. U.S. futures are down to start the day after a wild start to the week Monday, where markets saw a huge sell-off and then an epic reversal just before the closing bell. The problem, well, Ukraine tensions, disappointing corporate earnings, and persistent inflation concerns. And fighting inflation means, of course, a new era of higher interest rates. We'll talk more about that market anxiety later this hour.

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