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Closing Arguments Wrap Up In Hate Crimes Trial Of Arbery's Killers; Biden Begins Conducting Interviews For Supreme Court Nominee; "LBJ, Triumph And Tragedy," Premieres Tonight At 9:00 P.M.; Putin Signs Documents Recognizing Separatist Areas Of Ukraine As Independent; Beijing Games Wrap Up With Plenty Of Highs And Lows; Michigan Coach Strikes A Wisconsin Coach After Losing Game; Brian Flores Hired By Steelers, Suing NFL For Discrimination. Aired 2:30-3p ET

Aired February 21, 2022 - 14:30   ET

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

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[14:32:43]

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN HOST: In Brunswick, Georgia, closing arguments in the federal hate crimes trial of the three men convicted of killing Ahmaud Arbery have concluded.

Prosecutors called several witnesses last week to testify that the defendants used racial slurs in conversation, in texts and on social media.

CNN's Nadia Romero is there in Brunswick.

Walk us through what the jury heard before they will now start to deliberate?

NADIA ROMERO, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Victor, right now, we're in a portion of the trial called instructions to the jury.

Right now, the judge is reading over the charges, helping to explain or define certain terms for the jury, and telling them what their job is, what they're expected to do as they head into deliberations.

Of course, closing arguments, as you mentioned, Victor, just wrapped up with the prosecution's rebuttal.

The prosecution started the day laying out their case, saying it's pretty simple when you look at the evidence. All three men were fixated on race and had a pure hatred for black people.

They reminded the injury about the 20 witnesses they brought before them who talked about their personal interactions with these men, who went on racist rants against black people, using racial slurs, at times, saying they wanted all black people to die.

The prosecution also reminded the jury about all of the social media posts and the text messages where the men very freely and openly used the N-word and other racial slurs. They said they targeted Ahmaud Arbery because he was black and that's

why they ended up killing him.

And the defense, during their closing arguments, says the prosecution has it all wrong. The only reason they went after Ahmaud was because the men were trying to protect themselves and their neighborhood.

They believed Ahmaud was the person behind stealing from their cars and going in and out of a home that was under construction.

And they were simply trying to do a citizen's arrest that turned violent when he resisted. And they had to shoot him in self-defense. But none of this was because of his race or the color of his skin.

Arbery's mother was inside the courtroom today, and she became noticeably upset, emotional, because, she says, during the defense's closing arguments, they lied. She says they lied about the final moments of her son's life.

Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[14:34:59]

WANDA COOPER-JONES, MOTHER OF AHMAUD ARBERY: Ahmaud had been chased down for five minutes. And when Ahmaud turned to Travis -- when Ahmaud turned to Travis, Travis had already had the shotgun pulled towards him.

Very emotional. This has been very draining. And I'm thankful that it is almost over.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMERO: Almost over for sure. We have the instructions to the jury, then they'll deliberate. We could have a verdict, Victor, any day now.

Ahmaud Arbery's mother was asked about the timing of this trial because Wednesday marks two years since the murder of her son, Ahmaud Arbery. And there will be services held here in Brunswick, Georgia, and in the Atlanta area -- Victor?

BLACKWELL: Nadia Romero, for us there outside the courthouse, thank you.

President Biden has started interviewing potential Supreme Court nominees to fill retiring Justice Stephen Breyer's spot.

CNN's M.J. Lee joins me now from the White House.

M.J., what more do you know?

M.J. LEE, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Victor, remember, this is the self-imposed deadline that we heard from President Biden from the very beginning. He said he would like to nominate someone before the end of February.

What we're hearing now is that he's still on track to do that. There's just one week left, basically, in this month.

That means that any day now, we could be hearing about this announcement.

And what we know is that President Biden is now in the interview stage of this process.

That sometime last week, he did sit down with one of the candidates, though we don't know exactly how many others he may have also met with in that sort of context.

We of course, know this is going to be one of the most important decisions of President Biden's presidency so far.

We already know it will be hugely historical. He's said he's going to appoint the first black woman to the Supreme Court.

He's also said things like he doesn't want to make an ideological choice.

But it is important to him that he chooses someone who has a mainstream view of the Constitution, that he would like to get Republican support for this eventual nominee.

As much as this is at the top of his domestic agenda, Victor, it's very telling, the events of today and over the weekend, we have gotten real signs that the geopolitical events, everything that is going on over in Russia and Ukraine, that has really consumed President Biden's days.

But for now, again, the White House officials are telling us that he is still on track to make this announcement by the end of this month -- Victor?

BLACKWELL: One week until the self-imposed deadline.

M.J. Lee, for us at the White House, thank you.

The Winter Olympic flame goes out in Beijing with the closing ceremonies. We'll tell you how the U.S. did in that medal count.

And on this President' Day, be sure to tune in to CNN's new original series, "LBJ: TRIUMPH AND TRAGEDY."

Here's a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: LBJ was intensely aware that he came into the office under the cloak of tragedy.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It drove him to try to do things no one else had ever achieved. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He said to his aides, "What the hell is a

presidency for? If you're not going to do something bold, why be here?"

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think Lyndon Johnson would be seen today as one of our greatest presidents because of all that he did. But he made one bad mistake.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Vietnam really pulled him apart. He couldn't make a win out of this, no matter how hard he tried.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: LBJ said, I wish they knew that I want peace as much they do.

LYNDON B. JOHNSON, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It's important to reflect and look back and see what has been done because there's no better way to judge the future than by the past.

[14:38:40]

LBJ: TRIUMPH AND TRAGEDY, continues tonight at 9:00 on CNN.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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[14:43:26]

BLACKWELL: The breaking news, Russian President Vladimir Putin has just signed documents recognizing some of the -- as he calls them -- separatist republics of Donbass.

Let's go to CNN's Jim Sciutto with the reporting and the context -- Jim?

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: (VIDEO PROBLEM) -- of Russia has recognized by his own decree independent portions of an independent country as now being independent of that country. Right?

These are part, inside the contiguous borders of Ukraine, in the east of the country.

An area that Russia has been deliberately destabilizing for some eight years now through a whole host of means, including arming rebels there, in effect, Russia-backed separatists, as they're known, arming them to a great degree.

To the degree that they rolled a surface-to-air missile system in there a number of years ago that ended up shooting down a passenger jet over Europe.

And it's been carrying out shelling. And 14,000 people have died in this ongoing conflict there over the past eight years.

Now the Russian president has declared them independent of sovereign Ukrainian territory, much as he did a number of years ago with Crimea.

Which he went on to annex, and claims now as part of Russia, although the international community does not recognize that. And you can expect that the international community will not recognize this.

Now in advance of this, with some expectations that Putin might do this, the U.S. has a position on this.

[14:45:00]

The Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said that if Putin were to recognize those areas as independent, the U.S. and its allies would respond with sanctions.

It's not clear what exactly that list of sanctions would be, because, of course, they've promised a whole host of responses right up to and including, if he were to choose to invade all of Ukraine.

Right now, it appears that may be where he stops for now in the east. And so now, Victor, we'll be looking to see how the U.S. and NATO respond to this.

BLACKWELL: Jim, administration officials have said for months now, as recently as just last week, of course, before we heard President Biden say he now believed that Putin had made up his mind, that the final decision had not been made, that there was still room for diplomacy.

Now that this has been signed, with hindsight being 20/20, is there any evidence that Putin ever equivocated about the step he's now taking, and what could come next?

SCIUTTO: Let's be clear for a moment, because when President Biden was speaking, he was speaking about the possibility of a broader invasion of Ukraine --

BLACKWELL: Yes.

SCIUTTO: -- one that U.S. intelligence has indicated would take not just the east, but the north, the south, the east, the west, the capital, a broad-based campaign involving tens of thousands of Russian forces, tanks, air strikes, missile strikes, et cetera.

To date -- and again, this could change very quickly. To date, all the Russian president announced tonight is action, legal action, by his own definition, of recognizing these areas in eastern Ukraine are no longer part of Ukraine.

But what was striking, Victor -- and you and I were speaking about this previously -- is that his long, ranting statement, as he was holding court to some degree.

And really rewriting the history of the last century, he was not just saying that Ukraine should not be independent of Russia. He claimed it's really part of Russia, historically.

But he also said it was madness that other former Soviet republics were allowed to leave the Soviet Union so easily.

The trouble is, of course, that also applies to many other independent nations in Europe today, some of them NATO allies, such as the Baltic States.

So the question is, is this decree tonight just the first of many steps? Is it the first of a new normal here where he is, in effect, denying the history of the last several decades?

Like challenging it, and indicating, showing, demonstrating that he won't stop there, based on his view of history and his view that the independence of these countries is not right for some reason, and should be reversed.

That was an even more alarming part of what we heard him say to the world, really, just a few moments ago.

BLACKWELL: We've got Congressman John Garamendi coming up in a few moments, who is part of this delegation in Brussels, trying to shore up and reassure NATO allies of the unity within the group and that the U.S. will be there to support them.

Jim Sciutto, with the breaking news there from Lviv, thank you.

The 2022 Winter Olympic Games have come to an end. Fireworks lit up Beijing Sunday as the Olympic host city said farewell.

The closing ceremony has brought to an end two weeks of competition, hundreds of medals, and plenty of controversy.

The U.S. finished fifth in the medal count with 25 medals, eight of them gold. Norway, came out on top with 37 medals, a record 16 of them gold. Russia, or the Russian Olympic Committee, as we should say, finished second in the medal count.

With us now, Cari Champion. She is the co-host of a new CNN-Plus show "Cari & Jemele, Speak Easy, which will highlight the biggest stories in sports, entertainment, politics and culture.

Good to see you again.

CARI CHAMPION, CNN-PLUS CO-HOST, "CARI & JEMELE, SPEAK EASY": Good to see you.

BLACKWELL: The games have ended. Lower than typical ratings. No cheering general public fans in the stands. Doping scandal, diplomatic boycott.

What do you expect that these games will be remembered for?

CHAMPION: You know, I've been thinking about this over the last couple of weeks. I know there are several things at play.

The first of them, if I just had to think about the memory of it, it was joyless. Normally, when we think about the Olympics, we think about joy, we

think about pride, we think about representation. And quite frankly, it was all overshadowed because of the doping scandal.

I know China wanted to get the Olympics off without some sort of disaster, but that's a pretty low bar, considering the endemic that we're in.

And it's unfortunate because they already had low ratings. And what happened is people weren't watching because it was depressing. There was nothing exciting.

Do you remember? You watched the Olympics with your family, your friends. You gather around the television to feel something.

And what we felt was hopeless, joyless. We felt sorry for a 15-year- old skater. We had very complex feelings towards her and her even competing, not to mention how we felt towards China.

[14:50:07]

So for me, this is what this Olympics, this Winter Olympics will be known for.

And there needs to be a serious overhaul of the IOC. Because the International Olympic Committee is, quite frankly, documented as not just and right and corrupt.

And they really need to take care of that so that we can go back to enjoying what we all thought the Olympics should be.

BLACKWELL: Yes. It's probably a little Olympic fatigue because we just watched the delayed, postponed Summer Olympics not too long ago. Maybe there's a bit of that at play as well.

Let's turn to college basketball. And Michigan coach, Juwan Howard, punched, slapped -- I don't what to call that -- the Wisconsin coach.

Listen, no excuse for hitting the man, ever.

But what happened here?

CHAMPION: I was -- just like everyone, I was shocked. And as you're trying to describe what it was, it was a grab that kind of went to the face. I wouldn't call it a punch, per se.

What I will tell is there are a lot of things at play here. You know this well.

Juwan Howard, now the head coach at Michigan, was a part of the infamous and famous Fab Five.

I remember growing up watching college basketball specifically for the Fab Five and what they were able to do.

It was five members of the Michigan team and they were different. They dressed differently. They acted differently.

And a lot of people at the time -- I don't know if you remember. The NCAA were a little concerned about these five black guys who were playing at this university and they were doing it their way.

Big, baggy shorts, black socks. The imagery of it all wasn't traditional college basketball.

Juwan and the rest of the Fab Five have went on the have very successful careers.

So when he got this job as the head coach, we were rooting for him in a way in which only made sense because we wanted it to be full circle.

Now, as a leader of men -- and you know this better than I do -- there's no excuse for hitting or touching or going after anyone.

Everyone recounts the video of the Wisconsin coach, Coach Gard, walking up to him and grabbing him. He grabbed Juwan.

And Juwan was angry about time out, angry about losing a game, all of this testosterone happening.

And it seemed like he just lost his cool in that moment. But then it spills into the crowd and it turns into the players. It looks so devastating.

Now we turn to, what is the punishment? What is the punishment for Juwan Howard? Because it was on national television.

And if I look at it, if I said, to be fair, maybe they sit him down for the rest of the season.

I don't necessarily think it's a fireable offense because people are making that case. But things do happen.

And I don't want to do a tit for tat. But we can go back to the history of whether coaches who have been given other excuses and been allowed to continue to coach.

But this was, quite frankly, disturbing for everybody on all levels. I'm sure Coach Howard feels awful.

BLACKWELL: Let's finish up here with Bryan Flores, former Miami Dolphin coach, who is now joining the Steelers, senior defensive assistant and linebackers coach.

I've said this before, I don't really watch football like that so I'm leaning on your expertise here.

Is this a role that you would have expected for him? What's your take?

CHAMPION: Victor, I'm torn. I get the news and I say to myself, what is a senior defensive assistant, if you will? I'm torn by all of that.

Quite frankly, I was surprised that he got hired by the NFL. That's the first thing. I'm surprised the NFL signed off on that. That's first thing. That was progress, if you will.

But it made sense to be under Mike Tomlin, who is a well revered black head coach.

The Steelers, the owner of the Steelers follows the Rooney Rule, which makes sure minorities get an opportunity to interview as head coaches.

So all of it makes sense on paper. But here is the thing. I have to be honest with you. That man is a head coach.

It's essentially someone saying to you, look, you've been anchoring at CNN forever. Do you mind taking this job as an A.P., an associate producer, or as a reporter, a freelance reporter? You're like I'm qualified to do more, just so you know.

BLACKWELL: Yes.

CHAMPION: Now he, to his credit, swallowed his pride and took the job because he loves this game.

BLACKWELL: Yes.

CHAMPION: And I'm still surprised.

BLACKWELL: Of course, the context was he is suing the NFL alleging racial discrimination.

You mentioned the Rooney Rule that requires these teams, at least in the position of head coach, to interview two candidates.

He said he went on an interview and they have already chosen the person they wanted for that job.

Cari Champion, good to see you. Thank you.

CHAMPION: Thank you so much. See you soon.

BLACKWELL: All right.

[14:54:50]

Millions of Americans are under winter storm alerts right now. We'll bring you the latest on forecast up next.

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BLACKWELL: Nearly 25 million Americans are under some form of winter storm alert right now. High winds and heavy snow could lead to blizzard conditions in much of the northern U.S.

It could also cause some big travel delays. And there's more bad weather expected behind that later this week.

Meteorologist Jennifer Gray is at the CNN Weather Center to break it down for us.

[14:59:58]

Jennifer, what do you see?

JENNIFER GRAY, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Victor, we'll see several rounds of winter weather through the week. The first round happening today and tomorrow.

This is mainly going to impact the northern tier of the country where we could see six to 12 inches of snow.