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Biden To Address Nation On Russia-Ukraine Crisis; Some Ukrainian Agencies Hit By Possible Cyberattack; Ballots Rejected, Voters Frustrated Over New Texas Voting Law. Aired 3-3:30p ET

Aired February 15, 2022 - 15:00   ET

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

[15:00:07]

MAX FOSTER, CNN ROYAL CORRESPONDENT: There are also indications here from what Giuffre has got from this. So, you may remember back in October, Prince Andrew was accusing or his team were accusing Giuffre of going with a big payday at Prince Andrew expense. He's been accused of not showing enough sympathy for Jeffrey Epstein's victims.

At a statement that appeared in court today very much suggested these factors, Prince Andrew saying he never intended to malign Ms. Giuffre's characters, also saying that he regrets his association with Epstein and commends the bravery of Ms. Giuffre. So, he's accepting some wrongdoing in the way he's handled this, his associations but not guilt.

But still, his reputation left in tatters. It's difficult to see how he can make a public come back after this.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN HOST: Okay. Max Foster, thank you.

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VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN HOST: Top of the hour here on CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Victor Blackwell.

CAMEROTA: And I'm Alisyn Camerota. Minutes from now, President Biden will address the growing crisis in Ukraine. We'll bring you his speech live when it happens.

Also, NATO now says Ukraine is preparing for, quote, large scale emergencies of various nature that can affect its civilian population, end quote. This request comes as Russia gives conflicting signals on a possible invasion. Russia claims its pulling back some troops from around Ukraine.

Earlier today, President Putin appeared to take a step toward a diplomatic solution saying he does not want war.

BLACKWELL: But, Ukraine, the U.S. and NATO, they're no convinced by the conflicting messages from the Kremlin. NATO secretary general says there are no signs of Russian de-escalation along the border, despite Moscow's claims.

Let's bring in now, CNN's Erin Burnett. She is live in Lviv, Ukraine. It's west of the capitol Kyiv.

Erin, so let's talk about this request from Ukraine. They're asking NATO for help. What are you hearing?

ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST, "ERIN BURNETT OUTFRONT": OK. So, they are asking NATO for help and we should just be clear here. They are not asking for any sort of military or lethal assistance. That would be contrary to the NATO treaty. But they are asking for a pretty specific list of things.

Alisyn, you mentioned that they are preparing for large scale emergencies for the civilian population. They are asking for machines, for radiation and chemical reconnaissance. They are asking for field camps to accommodate 250 to 300 people and they are asking well over 50 of those, medical supplies, communication equipment, all sorts of things that they would need to move debris out of the way, or to move people, cars, trucks, cranes, bulldozers.

So, they have a very detailed list of all the things that they are now restricting. And, obviously, this does come as it's a bit of a shift in tone, right, as you well know, right, from Ukraine. Its president sort of making light of all the imminent invasion and saying it isn't imminent and now Ukraine, you know, from their side is very much amping up their desire for immediate support from NATO and from the West.

CAMEROTA: Erin, President Biden is getting ready to speak this hour. In the past, there's been a disconnect between the White House messaging and what Ukraine is saying.

So, what does Ukraine hope to hear from President Biden?

BURNETT: Well, obviously, the government level, right, they want to hear -- they want to hear increased support and they want to hear the United States is stalwart in their defense. I will say one thing that you hear from regular people and you hear this from people from all walks of life is that they specifically feel that the United States and NATO is backing them in way they did not feel in 2014. You keep hearing it repeatedly.

In 2014, when Putin invaded Crimea, no one took it seriously. Nobody was looking and took it seriously. Because nobody was looking, Putin was able to do what he wanted to do. They feel every one is looking now so it will be different.

So there's definitely a palpable feel the United States is supporting Ukraine. I will say it is very clear, every one here understands that does not mean U.S. troops are going to be on the ground here in Ukraine. It doesn't appear to be any confusion about that.

Of course, you know, where we are, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on his trip today and tomorrow in Europe will be about 500 miles here at a base where U.S. has been sending more troops to support NATO and, of course, a few hundred miles from here you have the 82nd Airborne where more troops have been coming in as well. But, so far, the U.S. has said those troops will not step foot on Ukrainian soil or engage in combat.

BLACKWELL: There are these conflicting messages from Russia. We've seen the ramp up in resources, but also, Russia announcing it will pull some of its troop from the border returning to their bases after completing the drills there. There is skepticism in the U.S. What's the view from Ukraine?

BURNETT: Well, you know, skepticism from the U.S., right, and the point of view from the Defense spokesman Admiral Kirby that it defies credulity to imagine that one would put all of those troops along the border and all of this infrastructure, right down to field hospitals and blood supplies, and then do nothing.

[15:05:12]

You know, I -- one of the perceptions here and just where y'all are, it does change day by day. But there is sort of a hope that there not be a large scale invasion and that Putin would settle for something smaller, like control of the Donbas, a path down to Crimea, and that he would, quote-unquote, settle for that. That's sort of feel that you get on the ground.

But again, it changes day by day. Just as this request comes from the Ukrainian government for all of these things they say they need and you have the cyber attacks that happened earlier today, it's going to continue to raise questions.

BLACKWELL: All right. Erin Burnett for us there in Lviv -- Erin, thank you very much.

There was also this apparent cyber attack on Ukrainian agencies today. The country's defense ministry says its website and two of Ukraine's largest banks were hit by cyberattack.

Sean Lyngaas is a CNN cyber reporter. He helped break this story today.

So, what do we know about the attack and also who could be responsible here?

SEAN LYNGAAS, CNN CYBER REPORTER: Yeah, Victor, we're still learning more about this incident by the hour. It comes, obviously, as tensions are high and the world is waiting to see whether Russia will further invade Ukraine. I should point out it's a relatively cheap and easy way to disrupt a website, so called distributed denial of service attack where you're blocking access to it.

So, it doesn't take a lot of sophistication. I just spoke or texted with an investigator on the ground and Ukrainian official who said it's too early to tell who is behind this. They are literally right now blocking access points to the websites that are coming from IP addresses and they're trying to piece together some of the digital clues to figure out who might be behind this.

But it's more of a psychological and symbolic measure right now. You try to visit the defense ministry website online. You try to go to your bank and check your bank account and you might not be able to get access to it. So, you know, how we report it also matters in terms of putting into context. It's not enormously disruptive. It's important to track and to follow, Victor.

CAMEROTA: Sean, tell us about your new reporting that the U.S. believes that Russian intelligence is working with some Russian media outlet, not surprising, to try to boost support for an invasion. So, what does that look like?

LYNGAAS: Right, Alisyn. What is significant here is the level of detail that some U.S. officials went into to describe new intelligence that indicates that officers from the FSB, which is the Russian domestic intelligence agency and SVR, which is the foreign intelligence agency basically worked hand in glove with these journals, these media cutouts to plant stories, even edit them, tell them to take things down, meet in person with them. So it's a rather extraordinary level of detail that the U.S. officials are going too.

Now, I should point out that, as you know, there's a lot of criticism of back and forth between the U.S. media and the Biden administration on show me the underlying goods here. You're telling me this is something that is happening but show me.

However, there's a lot of open source information that corroborated these allegations that U.S. officials made and just shows the information warfare aspect of all this, Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: Really interesting. Sean Lyngaas, thank you for the reporting.

Let's bring in now, Leon Panetta. He's a former defense secretary who's also CIA director under President Obama.

Secretary Panetta, great to have you here.

This is just very, very different messaging that we're hearing this hour from Ukraine than we heard previously where they are asking NATO to prepare for these large scale emergencies of various natures that can affect the civilian population. I mean, there's so many chilling details here about the equipment they're looking for, self-sustaining field camps to accommodate 2m500 to 300 people. Their public posture has been keep calm and carry on but this is different.

LEON PANETTA, DEFENSE SECRETARY UNDER PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well, there's no question that at this point, we're getting conflicting and mixed signals coming from Russia. And I think you have to operate on the premise you cannot trust Putin based on what he's saying and you can't trust the Russians. And so, for that reason, I think preparing for what may be the worst, is probably the best option that the Ukrainians, United States and our allies have to do.

We have to remain very strong right now. We have to remain very unified and we have to show the Russians that if they make that decision to invade, they will pay a very heavy price.

BLACKWELL: Mr. Secretary, I just had on Seth Moulton, Congressman Seth Moulton, a member of the House Armed Services, in which he said that some of these items, there's just not enough time potentially to train the Ukrainians.

[15:10:12]

Of course, you don't need training for cars, trucks, bulldozers but some of the more sophisticated equipment, he says that, it could fall into the hands of Russians.

Is that a significant concern when designing if NATO countries should grant these requests?

PANETTA: Well, my view is that it's much better to provide the weapons that they are asking for, provide the assistance they are asking for with the hope that they can learn to make the preparations necessary if there is an invasion. We just can't take that chance right now, and I think the better alternative is to continue to support them in every way possible, continue to reinforce our forces, continue to train them as best we can and try every step to ensure that the Ukrainians, if they do face an invasion are prepared to confront that.

It's not going to be easy. We understand that Russians have overwhelming force here. I think if the Ukrainians can show that they are prepared, that they ready to deal with this and the Russians will pay a price, I think that's the kind of signal that's important to send to Putin at this moment in time.

CAMEROTA: We've also found out there's been cyber attack in Ukraine against the defense ministry and one of its biggest banks. Still waiting to see whose finger prints are on it.

How should the White House respond to this?

PANETTA: My sense is that this is kind of right out of the Russian playbook, which is hybrid war, and that, obviously, they're building up their conventional forces but in the past, what they have done is used hybrid warfare to try to, basically, put their opposition off balance. And I think -- I would not be surprised, let's put it that way, if this cyber attack is something the Russians were trying in order to disrupt the Ukrainians.

I hope that we are doing the same to the Russians. I think it's important, if cyber is going to be a game here, then I think Putin and the Russians need to know that both sides can play that same game, so that they understand that we have the capability to use cyber to disrupt their command and control, disrupt their communications and very frankly, disrupt their infrastructure.

BLACKWELL: Mr. Secretary, that is your hope, but, of course, we remember a couple of weeks ago the president said there, of course, would be these massive sanctions if there were troops and tanks crossing the border. But if it were a minor incursion, there would be a bit of confusion.

Let's get a reminder of what we heard from the president. All right. So, we don't have that sound. I think we all remember what the president said.

CAMEROTA: You did a good job paraphrasing.

BLACKWELL: I did my best, I did my best. The question is there consensus on NATO if this is indeed Russia. If there is this cyber attack, not the troop and tanks heading across the border.

PANETTA: I think there is a strong consensus. I think the United States made that clear, that our allies have made it clear that any incursion, any step of having the Russians go into the Ukraine will set off not only the sanctions but will also set off the other steps that the United States and our allies have said they will take in order to make it very difficult on Russia to proceed.

This is -- this is a very important moment now. There's no question this is dangerous. The most important thing for the president, most important thing for our allies to do is to show the unity of effort that they have shown and, frankly, that I think has gotten Putin's attention.

I think that unity has to be reinforced now to make clear to the Russians there really is not a good alternative for the Russians other than to negotiate with the United States on their concerns about security. That's the hope, but they've got to show that they are willing to deescalate and so far, that is not the case.

BLACKWELL: Former secretary of defense, former CIA director, Leon Panetta -- thank you.

PANETTA: Thank you.

BLACKWELL: Well, this rising tension between Russia and Ukraine continues to drive oil prices. And economists now say it could have major impacts on the cost of living here in the U.S.

CAMEROTA: CNN got exclusive analysis from RSM which predicts inflation will hit 10 percent in the U.S. if oil prices continue to rise and reach $110 a barrel.

[05:15:08]

According to government data, the U.S. economy has not experienced 10 percent inflation since October 1981.

All right. Still to come, President Biden will deliver a speech on the Ukraine-Russia tension. We'll bring that to you live when it happens.

And some voters in Texas are frustrated after the state's new election laws go into effect. More on how the rolling out there is going.

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CAMEROTA: The controversial voting law passed in Texas last year is already creating problems for voters. Early voting there started yesterday.

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And by multiple accounts, the worse fears are already coming to pass, with a big increase in rejected ballots and problems with voter registrations. One election watcher put it this way, quote, everything that can go wrong has been going wrong.

Joining me now is Isabel Longoria, elections administrator for Harris County, the largest county in Texas, which includes Houston, and Pam Gaskin, a long time member of the League of Women Voters and the daughter of civil rights activists who is already encountering problems trying to vote.

Pam, I want to start with you because you are a dedicated voter. You vote in every election. You send away early for your absentee ballot. You have done this for years. This year, when you did it after the new law just passed, your application was rejected.

Do you know why?

PAMIEL GASKIN, HAD ABSENTEE BALLOT REJECTED IN TEXAS: Yes, I was actually rejected twice. The first rejection was because I downloaded the form from my county, Fort Bend County website, and they posted last year's form. The letter said through no fault of yours, your application has been rejected.

They put up a correct form. I downloaded the correct form. I filled it out and it got rejected again the second time, this time because I did not include the form of ID that was used when I originally registered to vote which was 46 years ago in this county. So --

CAMEROTA: Right. Just be clear, they wanted you to include the same, I think, driver's license number from 46 years ago that you had used then, is that right?

GASKIN: No, they wanted me to include the last four digits of my social security.

CAMEROTA: And had that changed in the past 42 years?

GASKIN: No. The problem is that my driver's license number was not in my original voter record. I didn't use that to register to vote.

CAMEROTA: Yeah. I mean, this is -- this is bureaucracy at its worse, but it's also possible it's intentional impediments.

And, Isabel, this is just one woman's story who is a dedicated voter. The form is wrong. They don't tell her which form of ID she's supposed to use. She's trying to download. She tries to correct it online. It's not working.

I mean, this is madness.

ISABEL LONGORIA, ELECTIONS ADMINISTRATION HARRIS COUNTY, TX: It's madness and I wish I could say she was an unfortunate anomaly in the system but it's not true. We're seeing an 11 percent of our mail ballots being rejected for those issues, either as Ms. Gaskin said, having two numbers. Both of them legal, both of them correct. Both of them true.

But because you didn't have to register with your driver's license in the past, you put down your Social Security number, but now, you put down your driver's license number because maybe you felt more secure with it. Those numbers are good but they don't match each other and it's that kind of, as you put it, that red tape that's now leading to 11 percent of applications being rejected but also 40 percent of mail ballots which have to have the same ids being sent back in Harris county. I think the statistics if I'm not incorrect are matching basically across Texas.

CAMEROTA: Pam, how did you feel when your application was rejected?

GASKIN: First, I was in shock and disbelief. I'm a super voter. I vote every time the poll is open. I have been on the board of directors for the League of Women Voters. I know what the rules are. I follow the rules. I tell the folks I have a degree from University of Texas at Austin in English. I know how to read and follow directions.

The application is inartfully and I think deliberately misleading. It says you must include one of the following. The first one is your driver's license. I put that in. The next line says if you do not have a Texas driver's license, then put in the last four digits of your Social. Well, I did that and guess what, I got rejected.

So, the next time I filled it out, I just filled in every blank. Every blank there was, I put an answer in it.

CAMEROTA: Did that work?

GASKIN: That worked. I got my ballot. The first time I applied was January 3rd. I got my ballot on January 31st. It took 28 days and three tries.

CAMEROTA: We reached out to the leading Republican who was behind this new law, Senator Bryan Hughes tell him about the problems that you were encountering.

[15:25:01]

And he did not respond to CNN.

So, Pam, first to you, what do you want him to know?

GASKIN: Well, I want him to know that I believe that we should not have voter fraud. Making it hard to vote is not the same thing as eliminating voter fraud. People who are -- they're very few people in Texas who can vote by mail. You have to be 65 or over, which that's the category I fall into, disabled, out of the county or -- I forgot the last one is.

However, we are all ready registered voters. When you apply for a ballot by mail, you are already a registered voter. So, it shouldn't -- whose trying to commit fraud here. This law is, I think, intentionally, designed to allow legislatures to pick their voters instead of voters to pick their legislatures. CAMEROTA: Isabel, I give you the last word. What do you want him to

know?

LONGORIA: Absolutely. I hope they hear when we testified about these bills. These are now the consequences of those well predicted actions. So, I hope that the legislature takes this to heart in the next season but until then, my job is to jump through hoops so voters don't have to. I'm sorry you had to go through that and all question do is try and prevent as many people going forward as we can here in Harris County.

CAMEROTA: Yeah, it sounds like you're going to be busy.

Isabel Longoria, Pam Gaskin, thank you both very much. Really great to get your story.

BLACKWELL: Breaking news now, a group of Republican senators have introduced their own sanctions package against Russia. Sponsors of the bill say that it will provide support to Ukraine and impose real costs against the Kremlin, including sanctions against the Nord Stream 2 pipeline.

CAMEROTA: Let's go straight to Lauren Fox.

So, Lauren, what does this mean for the bipartisan efforts to sanction Russia?

LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think that's the key question of the moment. You have Democrats and Republican who is have worked for weeks to try to come to place where they could get a bipartisan agreement on sanctions to really send a unified message back to Putin.

And, of course, many Republicans and Democrats say the president always had the ability to issue the sanctions needed, but they thought this was an important step for Congress. With Republicans moving forward without Democrats here, it sends a signal those bipartisan negotiations are coming to an end.

I do know, according to one Democratic source that Democrats sent a proposal to Republicans last night privately trying to move the negotiations forward. However, today, Republicans responded by releasing this partisan bill publicly without responding privately to that Democratic offer. So, a really critical moment here for the sanctions negotiations.

Meanwhile, the only option Democrats and Republicans may have to move forward together is a non-binding resolution admonishing Russia for their actions on the border with Ukraine -- Victor and Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: OK. Lauren Fox, thank you for that development.

BLACKWELL: We are awaiting remarks from President Biden about the situation in Ukraine. White House press secretary Jen Psaki says he's going to provide an update on events related to Ukraine but not announce new policy. CAMEROTA: NATO now says Ukraine is preparing for large scale

emergencies of various nature that can affect its civilian population.

Joining us is now CNN anchor Erin Burnett. She's live for us in Lviv, Ukraine. CNN's Phil Mattingly is at the White House. CNN Pentagon Orin Liebermann is with us. CNN international diplomatic editor Nic Robertson is in Moscow. And CNN military analyst, retired Air Force Colonel Cedric Leighton is with us as well.

Phil, let me start with you. What do we expect the president to say?

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, we expect it to be an update just on the state of play things, right? There's been so many discussions by phone, meetings, briefings going on over the course of the last several days. We actually haven't heard from the president weighing in on what's been happening.

What's been happening over the course of the last 24 hours is statements from Russian officials that have been keenly watched by U.S. officials. They understand or believe it's a signal or at least shift. What it's a signal or shift too is the biggest question.

And I think when we talk to U.S. officials, they made clear. They're very skeptical that there is any major reversal going on at this point in time. They have not seen evidence on the ground of significant removal of troops on the border, but they have taken note of this statements by President Putin, by Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, and in the wake of the president's phone call, the secretary of state's phone call this morning.

I think what you'll hear from the president is making very clear something he said before but underscoring it today there's a diplomatic option here and the U.S. is very much willing to engage in those conversations should de-escalation start to kick into high gear. However, if it does not, the U.S. and its Western allies remain very unified on the sanctions package and it will be quick and have a significant bite.