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Putin Signs Decrees Recognizing Separatists Areas Of Ukraine As Independent; Trump's Social Media App, "Truth Social," Goes Live; White House Dealing With Russia, SCOTUS And State Of The Union. Aired 3-3:30p ET

Aired February 21, 2022 - 15:00   ET

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

[15:00:01]

JENNIFER GRAY, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Well, Victor, we're going to 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 anywhere from 6 to 12 inches of snow and with the strong winds, we could see that blowing snow create blizzard like conditions for those areas. We also have a plethora, as well as a severe storm threat on the south side of that, not only today but tomorrow as well.

So, you can see the rainy side of that pretty much impacting the Mississippi River Valley, to the Ohio Valley, all the way over to the big cities in the Northeast. But you can see a lot of pink on the map as well. The northern states could see icing from this as well. The severe threat for today will be Dallas all the way up through Little Rock, including a few tornadoes, large hail, damaging winds. That shifts to the east a bit for tomorrow, including places like Memphis and Jackson.

But, Victor, like we mentioned, another round of winter weather by late in the week could impact the big cities in the northeast in a large chunk of the country.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN HOST: All right. Jennifer Gray, thank you.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

BLACKWELL: The top of brand new hour on CNN NEWSROOM. Good to have you with me. I'm Victor Blackwell.

A moment ago, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed decrees that recognized two separatist self-declared republics in the Donbas region of Ukraine as independent. For weeks, U.S. officials have been warning that Russia could set up a pretext for invasion tied to Donbas, and sources tell CNN that the U.S. is seeing no slow down in Russian military preparations. Just days after President Biden said he believes that Vladimir Putin will invade Ukraine.

Today, Biden's national security adviser said this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) JAKE SULLIVAN, NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER TO PRESIDENT BIDEN: Well, we believe that any military operation of the size, scope and magnitude of what we believe the Russians are planning will be extremely violent. It will cost the lives of Ukrainians, and Russians, civilians and military personnel alike. But we also have intelligence to suggest that there will be an even greater form of brutality because this will not simply be some conventional war between two armies. It will be a war waged by Russia on the Ukrainian people to repress them, to crush them, to harm them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: CNN's Erin Burnett joins us live from Lviv, Ukraine.

Erin, is there any response yet from the Ukrainian government?

ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST, ERIN BURNETT OUTFRONT: So, we just have a response now via twitter coming across a moment ago. I'll read it to you from President Zelensky here, discussed the events of the last hour with President Biden. We begin meeting of national security and defense council, a conversation with Boris Johnson is also planned, obviously, the prime minister of the U.K.

So, the president of Ukraine is beginning a meeting with his national security and defense council. We know the French president is in a meeting with his council. We know the German chancellor has condemned this. The president of Ukrainian commission has condemned it. Waiting on the United States and, of course, even though all of them are now saying they will do things, jointly, and in coordination with each other, it's unclear what that means because no one has ever said what a recognition of these republics by Russia would entail in terms of sanctions because, obviously from a technical perspective, it is not actually tanks crossing the border at this point.

BLACKWELL: So, President Putin also said during this hour long, hour plus speech that he delivered that all responsibility for continued bloodshed will be blamed on Ukraine. We have seen, at least, according to the Ukrainians, scores of violations to the cease-fire agreement on the Donbas over the last several days, scores each day.

BURNETT: Yes. There have been continued violations -- death of five Ukrainian soldiers today. Putin obviously doing what we have been told he would do, right? The playbook, the pretext, the false pretext.

Even in his speech, as you said, long and rambling, referring to Ukraine a colony led by a puppet regime, saying that any NATO training missions here in Ukraine are the same as NATO military bases as far as Putin is concerned, and that is unacceptable. Certainly, rhetorically, considerably upping the ante if that's possible, when you already have 190 troops stationed around the borders of this country, Victor, to state the obvious, right?

I mean, the words are upping the ante, but obviously, the military might is already well in place and Western official earlier tonight confirming on the background briefing that our Nick Paton Walsh had, that you had a significant number of those battalions moved into forward position. That would mean move into a position to strike. And that Western officials, the clarification there was that you can't maintain that sort of level of readiness for a strike for more than a few days without actually either striking or retreating.

[15:05:03]

So, the process of build up for a larger military incursion continues.

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

Let's go to the White House now. CNN's Kaitlan Collins is there.

So, Kaitlan, there is this agreement in principle for a summit between President Putin and President Biden. Of course, that was before these decreases were signed. Has there been any reaction from the White House?

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: No reaction yet. Of course, we've asked officials what they want to say about this now happening after Putin delivered that anti-Ukrainian screed that we saw earlier in that national address. And this is something officials warned about, talking about seeing Russia try to step like this to justify an invasion. Of course, this would be a step that they would try to maybe move troops into these area in Ukraine and try to claim now that he's recognized them as the so called independent areas, that they can do so.

And so, of course, this is going to be a big question for how the White House and the west at large responds to this. You're already seeing the president for the Ukraine Commission say that this is a blatant violation of international law, what Putin has just done after giving this speech. This has been part of the playbook you've been hearing officials in the United States government warning about they would lead up to the invasion, the physical part of the invasion.

We have, of course, heard officials talk about for weeks now. So, that's a big question. We do know, of course, as Erin there that President Biden has spoken with Ukrainian president. We're waiting to see what official statement from the White House is going to be because we know President Biden has been here meeting with his top national security aides all morning.

And this idea of a summit happening between Putin and Biden already seemed pretty unlikely because yes, they agreed to it in principle with the national security adviser Jake Sullivan basically saying, yes, of course, we're not going to say we're not going to talk to Putin, but they are saying that summit is not going to happen if Russia does invade. So, I think one big question for the White House is how specifically they will respond to this. Not just in statement, but does this trigger any of the consequences they have been talking about for weeks now? The ones they've been preparing in coordination and in concert with U.S. allies talking about what the swift and severe reaction would look like.

S, I think that's going to be a big question of how they actually respond to this and whether it triggers any of those responses and, of course, what that ultimately looks like putting that into place. It does seem it would make the idea of a diplomatic outcome here dim, even further than it already was, because officials did not sound confident that that summit was going to happen in the first place, given there's no date for that. There's no time for that. There's no format for that because they say Russia is preparing to invade.

And Jake Sullivan saying this morning that could happen within hours or days. Also talk about what attack would look like which he called extremely violent, saying it's not going to look like conventional warfare.

And the other thing we should note is that in that speech that Putin gave, he appeared to confirm the reporting that the U.S. has intelligence that they have prepared basically a kill list, a kill or capture list for some of these Ukrainians if an invasion does happen. That is another thing to watch for as well following that very dark and very angry speech from the Russian leader.

BLACKWELL: Kaitlan Collins for us at the White House, thank you.

Let's bring in now, retired Army Major Mike Lyons and CNN contributor for Russian affairs, Jill Dougherty, with us from Moscow.

So, this is the perfect pairing. We discuss the implications diplomatically and militarily.

Major, let me start with you. This is not troops, tanks, going across the border but the decree acknowledging, as he calls them, the separatist republics. What's the significance from a military perspective of what we saw just President Putin do?

MAJ. MIKE LYONS (RET.), U.S. ARMY: Well, now, we have to see what he does next. Does this separate region decide that it needs troops from Russia to come in? Are they invited in to the southern portion of Ukraine? Do they go in in just regular formation? Are they going to destroy things on the way in? We still don't know whether this that been a declaration of war that's been declared yet.

So, the bottom line though, there's enough troops along that Ukraine- Russian border to prevent really any troops in the northern part of Ukraine from coming down and waging war down there. So, I think we have got to watch the next step and once he decides to roll those tanks as been said, then perhaps that's -- we'll decide that's when war has been declared and those sanctions will hit.

BLACKWELL: Jill, only President Putin knows what he intends to do or what is going to happen next. But we heard from our chief international correspondent Clarissa Ward suggest that potentially, maybe, this is signed as something that could be manipulated or negotiate he goes into these meetings at end of the week potentially with President Biden. What do you think about that perspective?

JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN CONTRIBUTOR FOR RUSSIAN AFFAIRS: Well, I think it's pretty early to think about any type of meeting between the two presidents. I mean, this was -- I felt this was an extraordinary performance. [15:10:04]

You had -- we all knew what President Putin was going to announce that they were recognizing these two breakaway regions but I don't think we realized or expected that he would go on for that long, that vehemently about the reason he's doing this. It was a furiously driven argument that goes back to hundreds of years. He went into Soviet history. What he was saying is that Ukraine was created because of taking away, ripping away pieces of Russia and without Russia's permission and creating Ukraine.

In other words, it was a much bigger argument than you had to make for recognizing these two areas which is, I would say, worrying. And he also not only talking about Ukraine but he went on saying the western protectors are pushing in an endless stream of weapons and having military exercises. They are ignoring what we said. They tell us that Ukraine will never become a member of NATO tomorrow but what about the day after tomorrow. So, I think you're getting the picture of how serious this really was.

Then the final, which I found chilling, the Kyiv has to stop the this armed action or else all responsibility for any further continuation of blood which he had will be on the conscience of the Ukraine regime. That's a quote.

So, I think we are set up -- I was a legally almost. Mr. Putin is raising the possibility now that the Minsk accords that were supposed to bring some type of resolution, legal resolution to the Donbas conflict dead. Now he has legal, in his mind, some type of legal justification to do pretty much what he wants.

BLACKWELL: Yeah, and for people who didn't see that, that's air quotes around legal justification that we just saw from Jill.

Major, let me come back to you. The U.S. says it has intelligence that Putin has already given his field commanders orders to invade. Now, they warn it could be disinformation. It could be withdrawn at any time.

You pair that with what we have seen today. Do you believe considering, you know, past is prolonged, that we get to the end of this week and there are not Russian troops across that border.

LYONS: I do think that he's given that instruction. I think that is probably a G minus X days, let's say three or four days, because at some point, the Russian sit on the border there for the past few months is really curious and wants to go. The only way through this is through Ukraine from their perspective.

I think the intelligence community has done a superb job, in fact, so much that other countries have relied on our intelligence in order to get out of there. So, I do believe that when the attack does come up, they decide to go fully for Ukraine, it will be deep. He knows he's got to destroy the Ukraine military. He's got to make that the target and not necessarily the built-up areas and the civilian population, because he doesn't want to destroy Ukraine in the act of taking it. Going after air defense platforms and going after military units that would harm them.

So, he's learned from Syria. He's learned from the United States back in 2003 in Iraq. He's looked at how to wage this kind of war conventionally and I think that's the playbook they'll use once he decides to go and that will be obvious to everyone.

BLACKWELL: Jill, how closely the moves from Putin in 2021, 2022 mirroring what we saw in 2014 in the lead of up to the annexation of Crimea?

DOUGHERTY: You know, I think the rationale has been actually coming for a long time. I mean, what President Putin is saying is it's not Ukraine that is threatened. It's Russia that is threatened. And it's threatened by NATO and that NATO and the United States, he's talking about the United States is using Ukraine pretty much as kind of a tool in order to attack Russia.

So, this goes way beyond, again, as I said, just the issue of Ukraine. Ukraine is hugely important, but it's really all of this is his idea that he is under attack. He is under threat. And that's why, you know, we're looking at, we could potentially be looking at something very big.

BLACKWELL: All right. Jill Dougherty, Major Mike Lyons, thank you.

Former President Trump is launching his new social media app after being suspended from Twitter and YouTube and Facebook.

[15:15:01]

But there are some already issues for people trying to download that.

And on a day honoring the American presidency, the current president is dealing with a number of really consequential issues -- historic Supreme Court pick to next week's State of the Union, of course, all that's happening on the Ukraine border. We'll discuss.

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BLACKWELL: Well, today on Presidents' Day, happy Presidents' Day, (INAUDIBLE) I think we do.

Anyway, Donald Trump launched his own social media platform, Truth Social. The former president was kicked off Twitter and Facebook and YouTube after the January 6th insurrection. There's a lot of people trying to create accounts on the app, they're learning that they have been waitlisted.

[15:20:02]

CNN media reporter Oliver Darcy is here now to explain what is going on.

So, getting people to download it was easy and then what happens?

OLIVER DARCY, CNN MEDIA REPORTER: You can't sign up. I've been trying to sign up, Victor, for the past several hours since this morning, and I encountered several issues just getting to this page I'm at which is waiting for a verification code that's just never come. They are supposed to text you to authorize your information. It's just not showing up.

So I think this is a significant issue for them in their launch day and people who want the sign up are unable to do so. And if you go to the website, they are having trouble there if you try to get on the waitlist, which they are advertising now, you get sent to a 405 page, an error page there.

So, not a really smooth roll out here for the Donald Trump social media app.

BLACKWELL: This is day one. What is it supposed to be once it's up and running?

DARCY: It's supposed to be another social media site that's friendly for conservatives, that doesn't censor conservative voices. Bt if you look at the screen grab, which are all over exactly like Twitter, it looks exactly like Twitter. It looks like they copy and pasted Twitter and changed the color bit, and it's supposed to again, not be biased against conservatives. Of course, Twitter would say they're not.

The issue, of course, is also going to be, once people do sign up, there are rules for this website. If people violate rules, or they're going be kicked off. There's going to be some free issues that the Trump folks run up against.

BLACKWELL: This looks like -- put that back up again, those screen grabs. This looks like indigo Twitter. It's just the same thing in cobalt, maybe, if we're being specific about our colors.

All right. Oliver Darcy, thanks so much.

DARCY: Thank you.

BLACKWELL: All right. For more on this, I'm joined now by Charlie Dent, Republican congressman for Pennsylvania, and senior editor for "The Atlantic", Ron Brownstein -- former congressman.

Congressman, let me start with you and I guess launch day, debut day for Truth Social going poorly. Trump tried a blog that no one really paid attention to and he got rid of that. What do you think about what's happening here?

CHARLIE DENT, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I think he's trying to become relevant on social media since he was kicked off of Twitter and Facebook and YouTube. So, this is yet another attempt.

We'll see how this goes. Call me skeptical, I mean, obviously, the roll out has been pretty poor up to this point. But I'd be surprised if this thing takes off. I'm not the biggest social media guy in the world but I think it's an attempt to be relevant. You know, I think many of his followers may go there, but we'll see. I mean, this is tough. I mean, he's become a diminishing figure. He's

still a dangerous figure in Republican primaries but he's a diminishing figure.

So, I -- call me skeptical. I just don't think this is going to go as well as he thinks.

BLACKWELL: Ron, what do you think? I mean, we are approaching the primary season and the midterms and if it gets up and running and he can send out a tweet in the middle of a primary season, that could have some significant impact as we saw when his pages on social media were up.

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Yeah. Look, I think the first point is that it's another step in a long term process of much of the conservative base, the Republican base detaching itself from mainstream sources of media and becoming kind of living under the dome of conservative media, whether it's Fox News Channel or talk radio, or some of the websites that have proliferated in recent years, and living in separate reality, you know, that gives them a very different view of whatever is happening in the time, but also allows for ideas to really, rapidly spread kind of in this conservative, you know, information sphere like the laws we're seeing in states and last year, limiting how teachers can talk about race, gender or sexual orientation.

All of that is possible, Victor, because of the kind of development that you're seeing with Trump further moving his base into a narrow, controlled-dome like information environment. His influence, we're going to have to wait and see. He is still the dominant figure in the Republican Party even if he is lesser than he was.

We're going to see how far we can take that in the primary season. But I don't think whatever happens, that would indicate there is an imminent rebellion against him if he chooses to run again in 2024.

BLACKWELL: On the former president's influence in primary season, let's talk about the evolution of Congresswoman Nancy Mace of South Carolina. The day after the insurrection, she was very critical of the former president. So, we're going to play for you what she said on January 7th, 2021 and then what she tweeted outside of Trump Tower just a few days ago.

[15:25:01]

Let's watch, Congressman.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. NANCY MACE (R-SC): I don't know how you go forward and defend the indefensible. I believe that every accomplishment that Republicans and the president had and I was a big supporter of the president over the last four years and worked for him on his campaign but I believe that those accomplishments were wiped out.

I'm in front of Trump Tower today. And I remember in 2015 when President Trump announced his run. I was one of his earlier supporters. He made America safer and he took on China directly.

And America was stronger all around the world. And quite frankly, freedom and democracy was stronger all around the world.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: Well, former President Trump called her a terrible candidate and endorsed her primary opponent. She now says, I can win without former President Trump.

Can she?

DENT: Actually, I do think she can. The woman she is running against, Katie Harrington, lost the race to Joe Cunningham in 2018. She proved not to be a very good candidate, the woman who's going to challenge her.

So, I think Mace would be smart to look at what Brian Kemp is doing in Georgia. He seems to be ahead of the governor -- of former Senator Perdue. We see in North Carolina, Ted Budd was endorsed for the Senate race, but McCrory and Mark Walker are very much in. So, a Trump endorsement does not guarantee a victory.

Now, I do believe that Trump can do more damage candidates. He can harm candidates more than he can help them.

So, look, she's going to have a tough fight but I think she can win. I think she needs to be more clear and equivocate less with respect to the president. She had it right after January 6th. I think she needs to kind of stay there.

BLACKWELL: Ron, let's talk about the current president. He's got the Russia-Ukraine conflict. He's got a soon to be nominee for the Supreme Court. He's got the State of the Union coming up in a few days and, of course, this COVID and inflation and gas prices and crime statistics and he's dealing with low poll numbers.

I mean, this especially is a very consequential week for President Biden.

BROWNSTEIN: Yeah. Look, I mean, you know, you just -- you just listed all the reasons why this is a lonely job. You kind of wonder why people spend so much time running for it. They have to deal with a lot.

What you listed, though, is a combination of opportunities and challenges. Certainly, I think in the long run, his approval is not likely to significantly rise until people feel a lot better about what's happening in COVID, which may be already in process of happening, but even more so with inflation.

Having said that, these other challenges which are real do offer him opportunities. On Ukraine, he has been able to lead and hold together the Western alliance, more along the lines of what he promised as a candidate and we saw during the withdrawal from Afghanistan. The Supreme Court nomination gives him an opportunity to deliver something important to the Democratic base. And the State of the Union does give him chance for something of a rhetorical reset, although it's unclear where he goes legislatively with Joe Manchin still blocking the bulk of the domestic agenda.

In the long run, Biden's standing is unlikely to significantly improve until people feel a lot better about the way things are going. That's what happened to Reagan, Clinton and Obama in their first two years. Pessimism about the direction of the country, declining approval ratings, and then a recovery after the midterm when people got more optimistic. This is a moment for Biden but I think it's one moment on what is likely to be a long slog to get back closer to 50 percent approval.

BLACKWELL: Ron Brownstein, Representative Charlie Dent, thank you.

Some minutes ago, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed decrees recognizing separatist areas of Ukraine as independent. The Biden administration warned of swift and severe consequences if that happened. We'll talk about what options are on the table with a member of the House Armed Services Committee. That's next.

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