Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Biden: New Sanctions On Russia "Far Beyond" Previous Measures; All Arbery Killers Found Guilty Of Federal Hate Crime Charges. Aired 3-3:30p ET

Aired February 22, 2022 - 15:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:01:12]

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN HOST: Top of a brand new hour on CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Victor Blackwell.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN HOST: And I'm Alisyn Camerota.

Moments ago, President Biden announced new sanctions against Russia after Vladimir Putin declared troops into -- or ordered troops into two provinces in eastern Ukraine. This is move that President Biden said is a flagrant violation of international law.

President Biden detailed the sanctions and how they will cut off Russia's government from Western financing.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: This is the beginning of a Russian invasion of Ukraine as he indicated and asked permission to be able to do from His Douma. So, let's begin to -- so I'm going to begin to impose sanctions in response far beyond the steps we and our allies and partners implemented in 2014. And if Russia goes further with this invasion, we stand prepared to go further, as with sanctions. This is a flagrant violation of international law and demands a firm response from the international community.

(ENDM VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: The U.S. now joins France, the U.K., Turkey and others in responding to Russia's latest aggression. Germany halted approval of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline. This is a potential multi-billion dollar hit to Russia but also to Germany.

CNN's Erin Burnett is live in Lviv, Ukraine.

Erin, you heard from the president where he said, it was clear to point out that these new sanctions against Russia go far beyond what was imposed in 2014 after they went into Crimea.

ERIN BURNETT, CNN ANCHOR: And they absolutely do, right? And after Crimea, they took five months for the first sanctions. Here you are less than 24 hours after Putin made that move to recognize those two separatist declared republics. You've got these sanctions.

And they are. Look, they are on a continuum. There's a lot more they can do. But these have real teeth and they show that Biden is serious.

So, you know, you talk about stopping government debt trade for Russia. That's obviously very significant. Russia's prepared for that moment in a sense. They do have a huge stash of reserves. They're going to run a surplus this year. So, they have some padding.

But nonetheless, Biden's willingness to do it is significant. Going ahead after that state owned investment bank and the military bank, it shows where Biden is willing to go. Not yet commercial banks where all Russians have accounts. He's saving that fire but making it clear they can go there.

And I think also perhaps interesting to consider here, the bill in the Senate that stalled had the bank on it, VEB, that Biden sanctioned today. Senate couldn't reach a deal. Biden is sanctioning the bank which means the next step from him and the Senate will be much more significant.

So, the thing we're waiting onto find out is what happens with those -- who are these elites in Putin's inner circle. The president said in the coming days. I have not seen that list, looking for it. So, if I missed it here in a moment, I've been speaking.

But who those are is hugely significant. What oligarchs on that list, who in the inner circle. How much does it reach Putin himself. When he says, and family members, that's obviously crucial and what matters the most to many of these individuals. And they are people who have the most power to put pressure on Putin in Russia itself.

So, obviously, he's giving himself room to go and room to ramp up if Putin accelerates. But he is doing something much more serious than has been done before and certainly than in 2014.

I'm curious, M.J. Lee is at the White House. M.J., what you -- what went into this thinking and how they are thinking about where they go next. Obviously, they didn't have lot of time to do there but this was a scenario they fully anticipated might happen. So, they didn't only have 24 hours. A lot of thought went into this.

M.J. LEE, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, first of all, Erin, this was obviously a very important speech in terms of sending a message to the American people and the message at the very top of President Biden's speech was very clear, and that is that we have entered a new stage of this Russia-Ukraine crisis, saying the words, this is the beginning of a Russian invasion of Ukraine.

[15:05:12]

We, of course, had heard that from a top U.S. official this morning. But now, we have those words directly from the president. With the roll out of these sanctions that are targeting some of these Russian financial institutions, Russian sovereign debt, some of the Russian elite and family members, he also made it clear this is only the beginning. He described the sanctions that were being announced as only the first tranche of sanctions and that basically, the more Russia engaged into Ukraine, there will be more action taken by the U.S.

I think we have sound of the president talking about those sanctions. So, here it is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: Defending freedom will have cost for us as well and here at home. We need to be honest about that. But as we will do -- but as we do this, I'm going to take robust action to make sure the pain of our sanctions is targeted to Russian economy, not ours.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEE: So, essentially, Erin, President Biden was saying what the administration had been warning all along would happen if Russia were to invade Ukraine. That we are starting to see some of those things come into fruition.

I will just note one more thing, though, Erin, one think that stood out to me, Biden trying to communicate what this situation was not. He said he was willing to send in more American troops to make sure that we are strengthening U.S. allies. He said that I want to make sure that America is helping to defend every inch of NATO territory.

But then he also said this. He said, we have no intention of fighting Russia. So, for anyone American that might be tuning in and feel like these events are far away and wants to know how will this affect me, this was the message the president wanted to make clear, too, that this is not the U.S. going to war with Russia. There are sanctions that are being rolled out that the U.S. is working in conjunction with its allies but this is not the U.S. going to war.

BURNETT: Right, they made that extremely clear. M.J., thanks so much.

And, Victor and Alisyn, you know, certainly, when you see a little bit of recovery in the U.S. markets, perhaps that's what you're seeing, a sigh of relief that there wasn't more military escalation despite the president's tough and firm words about what he was doing and what he was unwilling to accept.

Interesting right at the beginning of the speech, did you notice he kind of came out right away and said Putin has recognized these republics with the border that goes into Ukraine, further than the border that those self-declared themselves believe they had, right? Much -- a much bigger part of land, for lack of a better word. And he came right out and said that.

And I think it seems like perhaps that was some of their delay was, to say, well, that just happened. Do we need to change or recalibrate our response, because Putin is pushing the line out even further it seems? CAMEROTA: Yes, so much has happened in the past hour and all day, in

fact. I mean, for a long time, there were incremental moves and today a lot has happened and the president just addressed it.

Erin Burnett, thank you very much for all of that.

So, one of them, President Biden authorizing additional movement of U.S. forces and military equipment into Europe.

CNN's Oren Liebermann is at the Pentagon.

What more do we need know about this move, Oren?

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, President Joe Biden said the U.S. will be moving troops already in Europe, EuCom, European Command, to the Baltic nations, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.

But we still lack details here. We want not only the number of troops but the types and whether this includes combat aircraft or any sort of equipment that will bolster defensive capabilities of NATO in the region. It's clear this is Biden administration living up to the promise it would stand by its NATO allies as it sees. Not only Biden, but also Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and the U.S. government see the threat that comes from Vladmir Putin's words in his speech from yesterday but also in the actions of the Russian military.

Remember, it was on Friday that U.S. officials said that the 40 to 50 percent of Russian troops were in attack positions near Ukraine. That hasn't gone into the right direction, that threat of a full invasion still there. Officials have made that very clear, but it's not the U.S. alone moving troops in Europe to bolster the eastern plank. NATO Secretary General Jen Stoltenberg saying all of NATO is looking as well.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JENS STOLTENBERG, NATO SECRETARY GENERAL: Allies have deployed thousands of more troops have been deployed and placed more on standby. We have over a hundred jets at high alert and there are more than 120 ally troops at the sea from the high north to the Mediterranean. We will continue to do whatever is necessary to shield the alliance from aggression.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LIEBERMANN: In terms of what is so concerning about that Russian positioning now following Putin's declaration of the two self-declared republics in Eastern Ukraine.

[15:10:02]

It's also the number itself, 190,000, if you count separatist forces, the capabilities there, air, land, sea, cyber and more, as well as Russian naval forces in the Black Sea. So, again, the threat, officials say, is absolutely real that Putin could order and has asked the Douma for permission to order forces outside of Russia, and that could lead to the full scale invasion that many are concerned about.

I would add, Victor and Alisyn, Russia pulling its embassy from Ukraine, pulling its diplomatic staff, not a sign that this is going in the right direction again.

BLACKWELL: We'll get into that in just a moment.

Oren Liebermann for us at the Pentagon, thank you very much.

Let's bring in now CNN international diplomatic editor Nic Robertson who is in Moscow. Also, retired Major General Paul Eaton. And William Taylor, he's the former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine and is now the vice president for Russia and Europe at the U.S. Institute of Peace.

Gentlemen, welcome to you all.

I want to start with you, General Eaton, and on these military moves from the president.

Vladimir Putin has demanded that NATO move back to the 1997 lines. What does President Biden do? He sends U.S. troops to Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, three countries that weren't members of NATO in 1997.

What do you see as the significance of this decision from the president?

MAJ. GEN. PAUL EATON (RET), U.S. ARMY: Well, this is on the part of the president it's to demonstrate that NATO is a vital national interest to the United States. So, he is going to these lengths to assure our NATO allies that we're in for this. We're going to support them.

And he leaves the door open for even a greater military preparation, not a response, but a preparation along the line of return of forces to Germany exercises that we witnessed in the Cold War. So, he's doing the right thing at the right level.

CAMEROTA: Nic, last hour, we were talking about the sanctions, the new sanctions and one of the things that we heard was that Putin has been basically trying to inoculate himself and his fellow oligarchs for the past many years by creating something like $3 billion rainy day fund, knowing that sanctions would be coming at some point.

And I think it was Michael Bociurkiw who said really what needs to happen is the oligarchs need to become persona non grata in the places that they like to go to their vacation homes from, you know, Vancouver to Miami, and just have everything cut off, all of their credit cards, all of their access to money.

But, you know, that's not what President Biden was talking about today.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: No. It wasn't. We have heard that from the British. We heard from it the European Union. The G7 has got its package of sanctions as well. In fact, the European Union is sanctioning all of those members of the

Douma who voted to recognize the independence of Luhansk and Donetsk. So, there are a large number of people but it is those top end oligarchs, if you will, who are worth tens of billions of dollars who are the ones that are closest to President Putin, who have shared the vested interest in amassing huge wealth of the back off the Russian state, who are the ones who can have a direct influence over President Putin.

But this -- the rainy day fund and I think the guest were saying 3 billion had been put aside for supporting oligarchs. The actual rainy day fund as we understand it that President Putin has been building over the past five or six years pretty much since he annexed Crimea back in 2014 but really accelerating it, 2017, '18, '19. It's understood right now to be at a round about $680 billion.

So, when the central bank talks about trying to underwrite some of the financial impact of what's going to happen, there is a sizable chunk of money available to Putin to do that. He can keep his key oligarchs from feeling too much financial pain.

But that idea that they won't have the freedom to travel, that will be stopped and questioned at borders, that their credit cards will be returned, they won't be able to dine in the fancy restaurants and order the best wines, they'll have to find ways around it, that it will not just be them. It will be their wives, their partners, potentially their children, the schools that they go to. All of that. That potentially over time can send a significant message.

But this is Putin's -- you know, this is Putin's persona, his image at stake here, not theirs. And he's shown himself very willing to sacrifice people who won't fall in line with his view on what he wants.

[05:15:03]

So, it also seems something of a stretch that they're really going to go out of their way in a short term, to get a find a peaceful diplomatic off-ramp. These are strategies that if they're going to work are going to take a long time.

BLACKWELL: Yeah, it is a continued inconvenience and pressure that potentially will have some impact. And with all that context, to you, Ambassador Taylor, is there anything that was announced today by President Biden, by any of the other Western allies, that maybe President Putin said, I haven't considered that. That's a surprise. Maybe I should shift my strategy here. Or was all of this just expected and already baked into the cake?

WILLIAM TAYLOR, FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR TO UKRAINE: I don't think it's baked into the cake. I think that he may -- President Putin may have had some doubts as to whether or not President Biden and the European allies would actually do what they've been saying they're going to indicate.

The one other thing that we haven't talked a whole lot about is the Germans deciding to stop the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, the gas pipeline from Russia to Germany. That's a big deal for President Putin. He spent a lot of time and effort on that pipeline and not to have that going into effect in operation is a blow.

There are other things that the United States can do, that Europeans can do, on the financial side, people have talked about putting sanctions on the Russian central bank. This would have a major effect on the Russian economy. Not done yet, there are things that can be done that are not yet be done that will have a big effect on Russian economy that president Putin has no choice to address, to acknowledge. Whether it stops him, not clear. Whether the size and the strength of the Ukrainian military which will exact the price on those Russian soldiers, if they try to come across the line further, that's another thing that President Putin has to think about.

Those soldiers go back if they're killed. They go back to Russian cities and towns and villages. Families are not pleased. The Russian people are not eager to see this war.

CAMEROTA: Ambassador Taylor, Major General Paul Eaton, and Nic Robertson, thank you all very much.

BLACKWELL: Well, the three white men who killed Ahmaud Arbery were found guilty of federal hate crimes today. Arbery's mother expressed gratitude for the jury's decision, but also criticized the DOJ's earlier decision to offer those men plea deals. She joins us, next.

CAMEROTA: And a major victory in the equal pay fight by the U.S. women's national soccer team. Ahead, we'll speak to the president of the U.S. Soccer Federation about how they got to this agreement.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:22:14]

BLACKWELL: Well, today, a grand jury in Georgia found all three men convicted of killing Ahmaud Arbery in state court, guilty of federal hate crimes. They found that Gregory McMichael, his son Travis and their neighbor William Roddie Bryan, chase down and killed Arbery as he was jogging in the neighborhood two years ago because he was Black.

Joining us now is Ahmaud Arbery's mother, Wanda Cooper-Jones, and her lawyer, Mark McGuire.

Thank you both so much for being here.

Ms. Cooper-Jones, the evidence in this case was so damning. These three guys were so brazenly resist. They said discussing things they felt free enough to say discussing things to co-workers to friends, neighbors, strangers at times over the years. I mean, what came out in trial was just stunning.

So, how do you feel at the end of all of it?

WANDA COOPER-JONES, AHMAUD ARBERY'S MOTHER: I'm thankful that the jury came back with that guilty verdict. So, I'm very thankful. BLACKWELL: You know, I have a message today outside the courthouse for

DOJ, and we have now heard from the Attorney General Merrick Garland in response to not only your son's death but to what you said.

I want to play it. This is what Merrick Garland said earlier today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MERRICK GARLAND, ATTORNEY GENERAL: I cannot imagine the pain that a mother feels to have her son run down and gun down while taking a jog on a public street. My heart goes out to her and to the family. That's really all I can say about this.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: I'm not sure if that's the first time you heard. But what's your reaction in response to what you heard there from the AG?

COOPER-JONES: I'm thankful that he did make that remark. At the same time, back in late January, I was offered a plea from the DOJ with two of the defendants who murdered Ahmaud and there was (INAUDIBLE) federal prison 30 years.

CAMEROTA: Yeah, Mr. Maguire, I mean, it was because of Ms. Cooper- Jones that the plea deal ultimately was accepted because she said that was unacceptable basically to the family. And, again, I mean, my point of there was so much evidence against these guys. Do you understand why the DOJ was even considering a plea deal?

MARK MCGUIRE, ATTORNEY: (INAUDIBLE) many considerations, including resources of the office, et cetera. We're very grateful that it went forward. Very impressed with the case they pulled in and more than anything grateful that the country got to see all of the evidence, as you said, that made clear what the motivation of this killing was.

[15:25:10]

We wouldn't be able to see that if the trial hadn't gone forward. So, regardless of whatever their considerations were, we're very grateful that all of this has come to light.

BLACKWELL: Mark, let me stay with you.

All three were sentenced the life in prison with one having the possibility of parole. That's William Roddie Bryan.

How does this conviction on federal hate crime charges likely change the next few decades of their life?

MCGUIRE: Well, all we wanted in terms of sentencing was that they did not get any special consideration, any potential plea deal, we've done that. We're glad that (INAUDIBLE) special consideration. The sentencing guidelines, we assume will be followed. There had to be a pre-sentence report. It will go before (INAUDIBLE) sometime hopefully this spring and we'll be able to answer that question then. CAMEROTA: And, Ms. Cooper-Jones, last, you've been fighting for this

for so long. You have been fighting for justice for your family and for your son. And so, what now? Where do you go from here?

COOPER-JONES: Hopefully, (INAUDIBLE) Jackie Johnson who was just as responsible for the killing of Ahmaud as are three defendants. And also, we have a D.A. George Barnhill who also played a part. (INAUDIBLE) to give court dates for Jackie Johnson as well.

BLACKWELL: And this -- the verdict coming just shy of two years since your son was killed there in southern Georgia.

Wanda Cooper-Jones, Mark McGuire, thank you so much.

MCGUIRE: Thank you.

CAMEROTA: OK. Meanwhile, stocks are tumbling, oil prices are surging because of the crisis in Ukraine. What will all of this mean for you? That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)