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Antony Blinken to Address U.N. Security Council Amid Russia Tensions; Biden Says Russia is Enacting False Flag Op Now; Interview with Representative Katherine Clark (D-MA) about Florida House Passes 15-Week Abortion Ban Bill. Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired February 17, 2022 - 10:00   ET

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

[10:01:12]

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

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

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Jim Sciutto reporting from Kyiv, Ukraine. We begin with breaking news.

Any moment now, Secretary of State Antony Blinken expected to address the United Nations Security Council as tensions between Russia and Ukraine and NATO escalate. We're going to bring you those remarks live as they happen. There's a lot going on this morning.

Also this, President Biden warned the risk of a Russian invasion is, quote, "very high," and listen to the timeline he spoke about.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We have reason to believe that they are engaged in a false flag operation, to have an excuse to go in. Every indication we have is they're prepared to go into Ukraine, attack Ukraine. My sense this will happen within the next couple of days.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

GOLODRYGA: We're also learning of two major developments from Moscow this morning. President Putin says he is preparing to address both Houses of Russian parliament. This is their duma. It's very significant, though a date for the address was not given. Also Moscow has expelled the deputy chief of mission at the U.S. embassy in Moscow. The U.S. calling it an escalatory step -- Jim. SCIUTTO: Let's go through all the headlines. There are a lot of them.

CNN national security correspondent Kylie Atwood is at the State Department for us this morning. Also CNN senior international correspondent Matthew Chance here with me in Kyiv.

Kylie, let's begin with you. First, if we could talk about what message we expect to hear from the secretary of State at the United Nations. This was an unplanned stop for him.

KYLIE ATWOOD, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that's right. The ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas Greenfield, said that Blinken is going to express the gravity of the situation here. What the United States doesn't want Russia to do is to use this venue to further put forth false information.

Now that is something that we have seen Russia doing in a number of ways in recent days, and a senior administration official said that they view this meeting as something that Russia could try and use as part of creating a pretext for an invasion into Ukraine. And they wanted to make sure that the United States had a senior official there, the secretary of State, who could lay down the facts.

And the facts on the ground, according to the ambassador to the United Nations, are that all evidence is pointing to the fact that Russia is preparing, still, for a potential imminent invasion into Ukraine. So that's why the secretary of State is there to present the facts from the United States' perspective.

And then of course, we're also learning this morning that Russia has responded to the United States. Given them a written response after the United States gave them written ideas about how to work together on issues like security. We're waiting for more details of what is actually in that written response from Russia, but what's more significant is the fact that -- is to look at what Russia says in this written response.

If there is actually any indication that Russia actually wants to engage in real substantive diplomacy because up until this point the U.S. has put ideas forth but none of those are ones that Russia has really dug its teeth into. And we're also learning this morning that Russia expelled the number two diplomat at the U.S. embassy in Moscow.

Now this is a small piece of this larger puzzle that we're looking at. This is a diplomatic grievance. It's obviously a problem for the United States because they don't have a very big diplomatic presence in Russia but what it demonstrates is that Russia often does this. They do one thing or they say they want to be engaged in diplomacy, and then they take another action which indicates that they don't actually want to be very engaged in diplomacy. The United States is saying that they see this as an escalatory move on behalf of Russia.

[10:05:04]

They are preparing their response, what they're going to do, but a lot of moving parts this morning and we'll learn more when the secretary of State speaks at the United Nations. SCIUTTO: Well, it's exactly the time when you need those diplomats on

the ground there to aid in communication. Of course came after a couple of days ago the U.S. closed its embassy here in the capital of Ukraine, Kyiv.

Matthew Chance, with me here. We heard President Biden there speak of something that we've often heard, and Jen Stoltenberg also brought up earlier when we spoke this morning about a false flag op. It's a phrase that folks might not be familiar with. In general, it means do something and blame the other side for it.

So tell us what we know about the shelling that is taking place there, how uncommon is it and do we know who's responsible?

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, I mean, this is an incident that's taking place near to the line of contact in the region where there's been a war going on for the past eight years between Russian backed rebels and Ukrainian government forces. There are regular violations of the cease-fire that's been enforced there since 2015 including exchanges of shell fire.

What we know from today is that the Ukrainian government saying that shell was fired and it hit from the rebel side and it hit a kindergarten with children inside. There were two shells. One landed in the playground, the other one landed apparently penetrated that wall, those images circulating around of that hole that's been punched on the side of the wall.

I've spoken to some military experts and they're not entirely convinced that was an artillery shell that would have caused that kind of damage but I mean that's for others to, I supposed to assess. The point is, in this tense situation that we are currently witnessing, it could be a spark like that that sets off a much broader fire. And of course, you know, the rebel side, the Russian backed rebel side is saying there's been an exchange of artillery fire over there as well.

Residential areas in Donetsk and Luhansk which are rebel-controlled cities say that residential suburbs there have come under artillery fire from the Ukrainian. Extreme tense, can easily escalate.

SCIUTTO: And you're exactly right, that relatively small incidents could then be magnified and be something more, and misinterpreted as well.

CHANCE: Yes.

SCIUTTO: Matthew Chance, thanks so much. Bianna.

GOLODRYGA: Joining us now is John Herbst, former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine and now the senior director of the Atlantic Councils Eurasia Center.

Ambassador, great to have you on. So clearly, both sides, both Russia and the U.S. with NATO are trying to control the narrative here. And that's why you're seeing the secretary of State addressing the United Nations today. We just heard from President Biden saying that he believes and U.S. intelligence believes that the risk of an invasion is high and likely in the next few days. Notably, he said he will not be speaking or he has no plan to speak with Vladimir Putin.

Given everything collectively that we have seen transpire over the last 24 hours, do you see there any opportunity for things to deescalate at this point or is war, perhaps, inevitable by now?

JOHN HERBST, FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR TO UKRAINE: War is definitely not inevitable. Putin can ratchet down the tensions as easily as he's scaled them up, but right now, he seems to be going for a full-court press to convince the United States, NATO, Ukraine that he's about to invade so that they will make serious compromises whether it's about the Minsk process, leading to an end to the war in Donbas which Moscow is conducting, or about NATO's future.

SCIUTTO: Ambassador Herbst, I spoke earlier this morning with the NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg. He like President Biden expressing similar urgency about Russian intentions here. Have a listen, I want to get your reaction.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JENS STOLTENBERG, NATO SECRETARY GENERAL: What we do know is that they have amassed the biggest concentration of combat through the troops since the end of the Cold War in Europe. And that these forces are capable of launching a full fledge invasion of Ukraine with very little or no warning time whatsoever.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

SCIUTTO: That the consistent view of NATO and the U.S., and they're deliberating saying this in public, repeatedly and releasing details of exactly where those Russian forces are, or U.S. intelligence indicates where they are.

Can you see that helping to deter military action that makes it difficult for the Russian president to issue the order given the plans are so public?

HERBST: I think it does make it harder for Putin for the following reason. It underscores that the response that Biden described to a Russian invasion is real and they were not going to be intimidating to making concessions against our interests simply because Moscow was threatening. Now Putin may well decide to invade Ukraine again, but if he does, his economy is going to be smacked, his geopolitical position will weaken because there'll be more NATO forces on his border.

And so his interests really push against that. The question is whether or not he is willing to recognize that he's putting himself and his country in danger.

GOLODRYGA: Those that have been following Vladimir Putin for many years have been saying for a while now that this goes beyond just Ukraine.

[10:10:05] This goes to where he sees Russia's place in the world vis-a-vis the West and I'm curious to get your perspective on Sasha (INAUDIBLE) who was a Russian expert at the Carnegie Moscow Center, something that he tweeted just this morning to see if you agree with it. He wrote, "In its negotiations with mobilized Russia, the West isn't just fighting for Ukraine's security but for the status of absolute victor in the Cold War, a status that Russia is now challenging using force."

Do you agree with that assessment?

HERBST: Well, I would call it a little bit differently. He's absolutely right that this is not just about Ukraine. As those draft treaties that Russia sent to us and NATO in December indicate, he wants to change what happened at the end of the Cold War. He wants to reassert Kremlin influence. Not just in the territory of the former Soviet Union, places like Ukrainian and Georgia, but also in the territories of the Warsaw Pact states. Poland, Romania, Czech Republic, Slovakia, and so on.

He wants to restore Russian influence there which of course cuts against vital American interests. That's why the strong response from Stoltenberg, from Biden to Putin's threatened new aggression against Ukraine is very important because we have an interest in making sure he pays a very heavy price if he launches a new invasion of Ukraine. He will pay that heavy price.

SCIUTTO: Ambassador Herbst, you were initially critical of the Biden administration's response. Last time we spoke a couple of weeks ago, you said, in effect, it was getting better. I'm curious, today, given the urgency of the way the White House is describing the threat, is the U.S. -- are the U.S. and NATO doing enough now to deter Putin?

HERBST: I think they're doing a good deal now. My understanding is that while we're sending additional weapons to Ukraine, only belatedly, only the last few weeks, that was a weakness in their policy before, we're not sending enough more advanced weapons. We should be sending our own Stingers to Ukraine in quantities. I'm not sure we're doing that.

Also, we should not have ruled out an evacuation of American citizens if Moscow does invade Ukraine with 100,000 troops. We did that in Georgia. We sent planes into Georgia after Moscow struck Georgia in 2008. But by and large -- I mean, those are specific criticisms, but by and large, I think the administration understands the gravity of the threat and has responded overall pretty well.

SCIUTTO: Ambassador John Herbst, used to serve here in Ukraine. Thanks for joining us this morning.

HERBST: My pleasure.

GOLODRYGA: And make sure to stay with us this hour. We will bring you those remarks from Secretary of State Antony Blinken at the United Nations live as soon as they begin.

But first, President Biden heads to Ohio today to tout his economic agenda. Congresswoman Katherine Clark joins us next on how the U.S. is recovering from pandemic losses.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:17:24]

GOLODRYGA: The U.S. seeing a rise in jobless claims for the first time in weeks. 248,000 claims were filed last week, 23,000 more than the week before. But the overall figure still sits near a pandemic low. Now this comes as President Biden heads to Ohio today to tout his economic agenda and his plans for improving infrastructure.

I'm joined now by Massachusetts congresswoman and assistant speaker Katherine Clark.

Congresswoman, welcome to the program. Great to have you on. So as you know, this is a very complicated subject because on the one hand the economy appears to be doing really well. Right? Unemployment is down. We're seeing more jobs added last month, nearly half a million of retail sales were up for last month as well and yet, we continue to deal with rising inflation.

I'm just curious, from your constituents' perspective, how are they feeling about the economy right now?

REP. KATHERINE CLARK (D-MA): Well, thanks, Bianna, for having me on. And this is the question of the day. Let's look at what the president and Democrats in the House and the Senate have been able to accomplish in just one year of this administration. Record job growth. 6.6 million jobs created. Unemployment at a historic low. And we are seeing wages on the rise. But Americans at home are feeling cost rising, too, at the grocery store, at the gas pump, and so we are working to find solutions for both things.

Let's address what we can with the inflation that we know was caused by that pandemic. But put things into place to control those costs, like investing as we've been in the infrastructure act, in our ports, in our airports. Driving down costs like we did around health care. Through the American rescue plan over 14 million people were able to access health care with costs as low as $10 premiums per month.

This is what the American people need. Historic progress for historic challenges.

GOLODRYGA: So back to the initial question, do your constituents feel that any progress is being made to address these really significant issues like rising inflation?

CLARK: Let me tell you about a woman that I met just a few days ago named Susan who, through the American Rescue Plan, had her house weatherized and this was critical to her reducing her energy costs. She is already saving $50 each and every month because of this weatherization.

[10:20:06]

That is exactly the work that we're doing. Let's put the American family and the challenges they're facing front and center. We're delivering on that and that is the president's message in Ohio. But we know there is more to be done. That's why we're continuing to lower costs of child care to make sure that we are lowering prescription drug costs, and I can tell you what we're not seeing is that same commitment to the American family and their success across the aisle. The GOP is committed to an anti-Democratic agenda and one that leaves the American family behind.

GOLODRYGA: Yes. I'm glad you brought up child care because you believe that the child care portion of the Build Back Better Act is actually the one piece that may get across the finish line. I'm curious where that optimism comes from, given the continued pushback that you do hear from Senator Manchin?

CLARK: Listen, we know that the child care system is fraught with peril before this pandemic. But the pandemic shows us just how broken it is. And we know that women have taken the hit in this pandemic- recession. So child care is infrastructure and we have seen that over and over, when I talk to families in my district, they are concerned about the high cost and the availability of child care. We need to change that to build an economy that works for all.

That's why Joe Biden put child care and universal preschool at the very center of his care agenda and Democrats are there. We already spent $50 billion in the American Rescue Plan to stabilize child care for American families. Now we have to go farther and make sure that not only do we lower costs for families, but that we pay providers a fair wage. These are overwhelmingly women and overwhelmingly women of color.

GOLODRYGA: Yes. Yes, and to --

CLARK: It is their time.

GOLODRYGA: To pick up on that, the inequities in job distribution as we continue to tout positive jobs reports overall is quite striking. The U.S. added back as I mentioned nearly half a million jobs but the data shows a lot of inequities among men and women, particularly as you said women of color. According to a National Women's Law Center analysis, male workers regained all of the jobs that they had lost since February of 2020 but since then, 1.1 million women who have left the workforce have yet to return.

Talk about how this is a problem not only for women but for families across the country as they are trying to return to the workforce and trying to come out of the pandemic and the impacts from it.

CLARK: Yes, these are two things we know. We know that we cannot have a full recovery if it is not a recovery for everyone. And that includes women and that includes women of color. And we know that is very much tied to child care and caring for our parents.

We used to refer to it as the sandwich generation. I call it the panini generation because talk to any parent of school age children and they can tell you about how much pressure they're under and that it tends to melt things in the middle. GOLODRYGA: Yes.

CLARK: And we need to look at these issues. It's long past time and it's what I'm so grateful of this administration, returning the focus on how we help Americans with success as they define it. And child care, the care agenda, getting our schools safely reopened and keeping them open, these are issues that are absolutely crucial.

GOLODRYGA: Yes.

CLARK: And we have changed the paradigm from these are private decisions to these are public goods. We are committed to making sure that we rebuild an economy where every single person in this country can see themselves in it.

GOLODRYGA: It's hard to imagine two years into this pandemic and we're still talking about keeping schools open and the instability that that's causing for millions of households, particularly for women, trying to keep their kids in school.

Congresswoman Katherine Clark, thank you as always. We appreciate it.

CLARK: Thank you.

GOLODRYGA: And still ahead, an ousted superintendent, a debate over school masks. The battle unfolding in a Denver area school district is a prime example of the power struggle happening across the country. We'll go there live for you up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:29:36]

GOLODRYGA: In a late-night vote in Florida, the House passed a 15-week abortion nearly along party lines. Abortion bill. The bill heads to the state Senate next week. Florida is the latest state proposing legislation to limit abortions.

CNN's Steve Contorno joins me now. Steve, so tell us more about this specific bill and the chances of it making it to the governor's desk.

STEVE CONTORNO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Bianna, what this bill does is it essentially makes it just a lot more difficult to get an abortion in Florida. It would ban abortion after 15 weeks into a pregnancy with no exemptions for rape, for incest or for human trafficking.