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Biden Urges Congress to Pass Emergency COVID Funding; Sources: Biden Administration Plans to End Trump-Era Pandemic Border Restrictions in May; Pentagon Gives Update on War in Ukraine. Aired 2:30-3p ET

Aired March 30, 2022 - 14:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:32:59]

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN HOST: President Biden is asking Congress for more COVID relief funds. And warning that without additional money, the progress against the pandemic could be in jeopardy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Congress has to provide the funding America needs to continue to fight COVID-19.

And if we fail on this, we leave ourselves vulnerable if another wave of the virus hits.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: OK, let's bring in CNN White House correspondent, Kaitlan Collins, CNN congressional correspondent, Lauren Fox, and CNN medical analyst, Dr. Leana Wen.

Lauren, where is Congress on this funding? Are they fighting this idea: How much are they willing to give?

LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Right now, they're talking about $15.6 billion. The hang up has been how exactly you of set the cost of that huge sum of money.

So one of the discussions they are having now in Majority Leader Schumer's office with two top Republicans, Mitt Romney as well as Richard Burr, who's the top Republican on the Health Committee, is how do off set that money.

Is there a way that Democrats and Republicans can agree to actually finance this package?

Now, if you remember, Alisyn, back a couple of weeks ago, Democrats and Republicans had struck a deal. But it was actually House Democrats who had significant issues with how they were going to be paying for it.

And in the end, Nancy Pelosi, the House speaker, actually had to pull COVID relief out of that government funding bill.

And that has really set these negotiations backwards. So they're kind of starting these negotiations anew.

Although, Schumer, the majority leader, has said he's hopeful they could reach a deal and pass it on the floor before the Easter recess.

Obviously, not a lot of time ahead to do that. But that is the goal the majority leader has set.

CAMEROTA: Dr. Wen, I have some medical questions about the booster, about the second booster.

We watched President Biden get his second booster shot. And the FDA has now approved this fourth COVID shot for people 50 and older and for the immunocompromised.

So can we use me as an example? I got my booster in December. So basically, four months ago. Has my booster shot worn off? And when should I get another one?

[14:35:10]

DR. LEANA WEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: This is so important to clarify, Alisyn, because people need to know the vaccine, plus the first booster, continue to be extremely effective at preventing severe disease.

There are one in three people over the age of 65 who have not even gotten their initial booster. So we have to make sure people get their three doses first. Of course, people who are unvaccinated have to get vaccinated.

That protection is not really waning. There are some people who might benefit from a fourth dose. And those individuals are people over the age of 65.

Or if you're over 50 and you have chronic medical conditions, you might want to have an additional level of protection with a second booster.

But I think that's something that should be a choice, just like it's a choice for people to keep on masking or to do testing before getting together indoors.

It's an added level of protection that not everyone needs at this time. But if you're immunocompromised, over 65, over 60 with chronic medical issues, it's reasonable to choose that booster now, just as it's reasonable to choose to wait.

CAMEROTA: That's really helpful. Thank you for clarifying that.

Kaitlan, I wanted to ask you about Title 42, the Trump-era policy. It was declared during COVID because of the pandemic. There was this emergency medical announcement that people seeking asylum could be deported. So I know you have new reporting on that.

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes. That's a policy that, as you noted, it was put in place during the Trump administration but has remained in place during the Biden administration.

They often defer to the CDC when asked about lifting that. There are certainly members of Congress who believe it should be lifted.

President Biden just told us they will have an announcement on that soon. And we are told that a decision is in the works and the CDC could announce it this week.

And that decision is going to be to lift that policy by the end of late May. There's a draft in the works right now.

Of course, this is the policy that allowed the government to turn away migrants at the southern border almost immediately upon arrival because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

And the White House said this is the decision they're making in coordination with the CDC. Deferring to them really on a lot of this. That's why you'll see the CDC making that announcement.

We are told they are expected to announce this week they will be lifting it by late May. Then they can implement the processes to change how that works, what it looks like, given it has been in place for so long now.

That is significant news coming from President Biden from the White House today.

CAMEROTA: OK, Kaitlan Collins, Lauren Fox, Dr. Leana Wen, thank you all.

We have new satellite images out of the Ukrainian city of Mariupol. And these show entire city blocks obliterated.

And among the most heartbreaking devastation, an attack on a theatre- turned-bomb shelter. It has left hundreds of people dead.

We're going to hear from a woman who narrowly missed being a victim of that bombing, next.

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[14:42:45]

CAMEROTA: Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby is taking questions on the war in Ukraine. Let's listen.

REAR ADM. JOHN KIRBY, PENTAGON PRESS SECRETARY: Yes, so on the withdrawal, we have seen over the last 24 hours the repositioning of a small percentage of the troops that -- and the battalion tactical groups Russia had arrayed against Kyiv, probably in the neighborhood of 20 percent of what they had.

They are beginning to reposition. Some of those troops we assess are repositioning into Belarus. We don't have an exact number for you, but that's our early assessments.

None of them -- we have seen none of them reposition to their home garrison. That's not a small point.

If the Russians are serious about deescalating, because that's their claim here, then they should send them home. But they're not doing that. At least not yet. So that's not what we're seeing.

And I don't know, you know, our assessment would be as we said yesterday, that they're going to refit these troops, resupply them, and then probably employ them elsewhere in Ukraine.

But I don't believe that at this stage, we've seen the refitting going on, you know, with any specificity.

On the reports of Putin not being well advised. I'm going to be careful not to get into any intelligence.

But we would concur with the conclusion that Mr. Putin has not been fully informed by his Ministry of Defense at every turn, over the last month.

Now I want to caveat that. We don't have access to every bit of information that he's been given or every conversation that he's had.

I'm going to be very careful here not getting into too much more detail on this.

But I've seen these press reports attributed to a U.S. official and we would concur with the basic finding. But I'm not going to get any more specific than that.

[14:45:06]

OK. Court?

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Can you -- I just want to be clear on the repositioning the 20 percent. You're not saying that all of those have gone to Belarus --

(CROSSTALK)

KIRBY: I said less than 20 percent.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Lees than 20 percent. Less than 20 percent of what's been a raid around Kyiv has now moved out.

KIRBY: Right.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: But all of those --

KIRBY: Has now been -- they've started to reposition. I don't know that I'd say all of them moved out. We've seen them begin to reposition less than 20 percent. Our assessment today. And we think some of them, not all, but some of them have already moved into Belarus.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: What do you mean by reposition then? They're moving further away from Kyiv --

(CROSSTALK)

KIRBY: They're leaving Kyiv and heading more towards the north. Away from the city.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: And are they continuing, as they move away, to launch attacks on the city? Are they launching artillery from further away still? Would you characterize it --

KIRBY: No. I think the troops we're seeing must've away, that's their focus is moving away.

But we still assess, as we did yesterday that Kyiv is still being attacked by bombardment, artillery fire as well as airstrikes. They're still, as I said yesterday, there's still a majority of the forces that Mr. Putin put around Kyiv are still there.

Now as I've said couple of days ago, they're largely in defensive positions. Several days ago, we stopped seeing any advancement on their part. They weren't moving closer to the city.

From a ground effort, there was no more advancing on Kyiv but the airstrikes have not stopped. Not at all. So Kyiv, as I said yesterday, is still very much under threat.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: How much total BTGs there were around Kyiv --

(CROSSTALK)

KIRBY: We never actually gave a number of the total. And I want to be careful about that.

But again, our best assessment is less than 20 percent over the last 24 hours now that we seem to start to reposition.

And I want to hit it again because I think it's an important point. If the Russians were serious about deescalating, and the way they spun this yesterday that they're trying to take the pressure off, then send them home.

That's not what they're doing. At least not yet.

David?

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: So just to be clear on the -- what troops you're talking about here, they were basically three lines of advance on Kyiv.

KIRBY: Yes. UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Northwest, northeast, and --

KIRBY: I would say from the north and northwest. Those groupings are the ones that they're drawing from now.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Does that include Chernihiv?

KIRBY: Yes. It does. It -- we do think some troops that were against Chernihiv also have been part of this repositioning.

And as well to the further to the east, there's a town called Sumy, S- U-M-Y. And we think some of those troops have also repositioned into Belarus.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: So, John, is it wrong to say that -- I mean, you're using the word reposition. I'm trying to understand the situation. Is it wrong to say that Russia withdrew some of its forces from around Kyiv?

KIRBY: They are beginning to move some forces away from Kyiv. If you want to call it withdrawal. I'm not going to argue with the verb.

I'm using reposition on purpose because the way it's being spun by the Ministry of Defense that they're pulling back, trying to deescalate, and depressurize the situation, we just don't believe -- we haven't seen any evidence of that.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: You said the latest on the half of the escalation, clearly, you're saying there's still bombardment. They're using missiles. They're using artillery.

KIRBY: That's right.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Not necessarily center of the city, but Kyiv --

KIRBY: I don't know where they are in their landing.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: This is according to own reporting. But the forces, regardless of the escalation, Russia is withdrawing some of its troops away from Kyiv?

KIRBY: They are repositioning some of their troops away from Kyiv, yes.

Sophie

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Yes. Do you see more troops going in the direction of Donbass as they say they would do to refocus on Donbass?

KIRBY: Again, we haven't seen, of the small percentage of troops that we have observed that they are repositioning, we haven't seen any of them go elsewhere inside Ukraine.

All I would tell you is that the Russians have said themselves they're going to prioritize the Donbass region. We have seen them become much more active there in the last few days. For instance, we think that Vogner Group has about 1,000 people

dedicated to the Donbass. We have seen an increase -- I shouldn't say an increase. We have seen them prioritize airstrikes in the Donbass area.

[14:49:57]

So if you look at -- again, I'm not -- I can't count every single, and I'm not going to count every single artillery shell or missile strike because they continue to bombard population centers through the air.

That's Mariupol. That's Chernihiv. It's Kharkiv. It certainly is Kyiv.

But generally, where we see them prioritizing the airstrikes now, it's in the north. With the exception or Mariupol, it's largely in the north. It's Kyiv. It's still Kharkiv. It's still in Chernihiv. And it's in the Donbass.

So when we talk about what they're doing in the Donbass, we know they added now private military contractors. We know they are prioritizing some of their airstrike activity there in ways they weren't doing before. We know they are considering other ways of reinforcement.

As well as, as I said yesterday, they -- we can see them make a concerted effort to try to occupy more territory in the Donbass.

Yes?

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Can you explain what the reason would be for them sending private troops to the Donbass region -

KIRBY: Sure. But you have to tell me who you are and what outlet you're representing.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Oh, I'm sorry -- my question. My name is (INAUDIBLE) and I'm with FOX News.

KIRBY: All right.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Can you explain maybe the concerns the U.S. would have about them sending those private troops to the Donbass region and their reasons for doing it?

KIRBY: Well, let me think. A couple of things. They have used Vogner contractors in the Donbass over the last eight years. So this is an area where the Vogner group is experienced.

So it's not a surprise they were trying to use private military contractors there.

Number two, we think it's a reflection of the very tough fighting that continues to go on in the Donbass. And Mr. Putin's desire to reenforce his efforts there.

You guys asked me yesterday, you know, show me how you think he's prioritizing. That's one of the ways why we think he's trying to prioritize the Donbass region.

Yes?

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: The department has released its budget and now we're in budget season. We go into the Hill justifying what you want to do, annual budget.

I'm sure lawmakers will want to know what the department is doing vis a vis Russia and this new reality of Russia invading Ukraine and being an acute threat.

What will be the department's response to Congress? How will it describe what it's doing to counter this new reality with Russia?

KIRBY: I think, if you look at the budget itself -- and the reason why we wanted to do a national defense strategy in concert with the budget was to show that the budget is strategically aligned with what we're trying to do in this department.

And of course, China remains the pacing challenge, the number-one concern for the department. There's no doubt about that.

But as you said, we refer to Russia as an acute threat. If you don't have to look any more than what you've seen over the last month to see the threats, the kind of threats that Russia can pose to international security.

So if you take a look at the budget and the investments we're making, for instance, in research and development, in scientific and technology, $130 billion dollar, the highest watermark ever for this department in terms of R&D investments.

A lot of those capabilities, cyber, space, 5-G, artificial intelligence, hyper sonics, you look at that stuff, and, yes, it will certainly help us against the facing challenge of China but will help us on what we consider the acute threat of Russia.

Let me go to phones here.

Tara?

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Hi, John. Thank you.

With the movement, are you seeing a movement of equipment and artillery or is it just personnel that is departing? Thank you.

KIRBY: No, we're seeing units go. It's our assessment they are also bringing much of their equipment with them for refit and repurposing for future operations inside Ukraine.

Look, Tara, I can't count every vehicle, everything rucksack that these guys are moving with them. But it's our assessment that their intention is to reposition these units so they can refit them for future operations.

Oren Liebermann, CNN? OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: A question specific to Mariupol.

Given the destruction you're seeing there, would you characterize that as the Russians carpet bombing the city or constructing a scorched- earth campaign there or would do you not use that terminology in terms of what we're seeing?

KIRBY: It's devastating what we're seeing. I'll let experts decide how they want to characterize it or label it.

[14:55:00]

But it is devastating. You don't have to look any further than the imagery that your network is showing as well so many other news outlets to see just how significant the damage the Russians are doing in Mariupol.

And the devastating effects it's having there on what can be described as the civilian infrastructure, residential buildings, hospitals, recreation parks, everything.

The place is just being decimated from a structural perspective by the onslaught of Russian airstrikes.

Caitlin, "Stars and Stripes?"

CAITLIN DOORNBOS, PENTAGON REPORTER, "STARS AND STRIPES": Hey, John. I'm just trying to break down some of the jargon we're seeing in the budget. Can you describe what is the difference between an acute threat and a pacing threat.

KIRBY: OK. We'll try this again.

(LAUGHTER)

KIRBY: We call China a facing challenge. Because in many of the military capabilities that we know we are going to need to respond to increasingly aggressive China and the potential threats that those capabilities mean for us.

That we're going to have to -- we're going to have to stay ahead of those capabilities.

Again, you look at the budget, you can see the kinds of capabilities that we're investing in for the future to make sure we are not just keeping up pace with China ease military modernization but we're staying ahead of it.

We are ahead of it now we believe. We need to stay ahead of it.

As for an acute threat, what we're talking about here with Russia is a military that remains potent.

If you want proof of being an acute threat, a specific threat, a relevant timely threat, if that's the way you want to describe acute that's certainly the way we would look at it, look at places like Mariupol.

Look at the question that Oren just asked. You can see it for yourself that they are very much posing a threat right now, in this time frame, acutely on the European continent. That's what we refer to when we talk about an acute theat.

Megan?

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: A general told lawmakers this morning that there needs to be some sort of repositioning of permanent rotation forces in Europe.

He said he can talk to lawmakers about it. You've said in the last couple of weeks, the Pentagon, that a discuss to have with the Pentagon.

Is that part of the posture review that was completed last year? Can we expect in the next few months of this year any announcements about moving permanent bases around or having different kinds of rotation deployments in Europe?.

KIRBY: I'm not going to get ahead in decisions that haven't been made.

But I think it's safe to assume that given what Russia has done and the ways in which the security environment have changed -- and I use that as past tense, not present tense -- you can bet that senior leader here at the department will take a look at our European posture going forward.

Again, I can't tell you when the decision will be made one way or the other or what that will look like. But the secretary absolutely wants to keep an open mind about European posture going forward.

Clearly, because of the acute threat of Russia and, clearly, because of the way the security environment in Europe has changed.

So could it mean more troops, more permanently based in Europe? It could. But again, no decision has been made right now.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: It sounds like this has been a discussion -

CAMEROTA: OK, we've been listening to John Kirby, Pentagon press secretary, talking about what their assessment is today.

Obviously, the situation on the ground changes every day. He's giving us new information about what we're seeing in terms of where Russian troops are now.

So let's bring in our CNN Pentagon correspondent, Oren Liebermann. Also, we have CNN military analyst, retired Lieutenant General Mark Hertling, joining us.

General Hertling, it was interesting to hear John Kirby explain,, he gave more information. They are seeing Russian troops move out of Kyiv toward Belarus or into Belarus, but they're not seeing them go to their home bases. So what did you hear?

LT. GEN. MARK HERTLING, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Yes, I was just taking some notes, Alisyn. And, yes, that was one of the things that I heard that did not surprise me at all.

The Pentagon has been using "repositioning" -- and I know there were some reporters asking questions about that. Because there are documental terms like withdrawal or several, retreat.

Repositioning means they are still in the area. They are moving to different locations.

[14:59:56]

It does not substantiate what Russia said yesterday that they were moving forces out of that area and lightening the load in the attacks in and around Kyiv. That just is not happening.