Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

165-Plus Congressional, Government Agency Staffers Demand Biden Take Action On Climate; U.S. Lawmakers Meet With President Zelenskyy In Ukraine; Joint Coordination Center Says Ukrainian Grain Exports To Begin Tomorrow; China Reiterates Warning To Taiwan That Pursuing Independence Is A "Dead-End Path"; Official: Russia To Withdraw From International Space Station. Aired 10:30-11a ET

Aired July 26, 2022 - 10:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:33:36]

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: In a rare move, more than 165 congressional and government agency staffers sent a letter to President Biden and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer urging Democrats to take action, some action this week to address the climate crisis.

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: And it comes as we see more evidence of climate change across the country. In California, the Oak fire is spreading fast now burning more than 17,000 acres near Yosemite National Park in St. Louis today. We are seeing record flooding. Parts of I-70 are closed as heavy rain has submerged cars, left people stranded as the most rain the city has ever seen in a day. And it's still raining there.

Our Chief Climate Correspondent Bill Weir joins us. How would a national emergency a declaration of that actually help now?

BILL WEIR, CNN CHIEF CLIMATE CORRESPONDENT: Well, it would vary depending on how ambitious the President wanted to be with that particular tool. He's already used sort of provisions of the War Powers Act to ramp up production of fire hoses out west when there was a shortage for that. But there are those who say, if you declare a national emergency, you can take it to the extreme, shut down drilling offshore immediately, stop investment on exports immediately.

These sorts of signals that were the cause of this problem is the kind of fuels that leak and burn that we -- the world depends on in so many different ways, but the need to move away from them. And that's what I think you're seeing this sort of uprising amongst staffers who thought they had the best chance in recent political history to lead on climate and nothing's happening.

[10:35:08]

SCIUTTO: So where does that leave things, right? I mean we have more than 35 million Americans there under heat alerts this morning. I don't want you to do a deep dive on how climate change has created the conditions for a lot of these things that we're seeing in a number of fronts, but what can the administration do next, I mean, because they may very well lose the House or the Senate in a several months time?

WEIR: Yes.

SCIUTTO: What should folks look for?

WEIR: I mean, that's -- that is the big question that the President says his lawyers are working on right now --to what extent they can stretch his executive powers without any legislative help. It's interesting that the letter from staffers part of their please, please get Joe Manchin to change his mind. You know, this is on up on an old- fashioned filibuster sort of recent made up American rules where the fate of life on Earth is at stake and does doesn't seem to match.

Now, if this were FDR, if this were the 40s, if this was after Pearl Harbor, maybe you would nationalize in the way that they tried to get Ford and Chevy to make ventilators for COVID. There's a three-year waiting list for Ford F-150 trucks. Why not thrill (ph) the military might behind that? Why not use the military's footprints as a symbol of a transition?

The carbon reduction in the infrastructure bill is one-sixth of what the Pentagon emits around the world and all the bases, weapons factors. So to put this in perspective, according to Bill McKibben, Hillary Clinton was going to declare this on day one a national emergency just to set the conversation in this way. Some people think it was the message that you need a clear mission, like why are we declaring an emergency again? What is the target on a fight that?

It should touch every Cabinet office really, holistically. So that's what people are waiting to see, is what the President does now that he really doesn't have the courts or Congress on his side in any meaningful way.

And, Jim, I actually spoke to your high school recently. And the debate, he was telling me the topic and their last debate was can a democracy even stop (ph) the climate crisis? What kind of governments can't? And I think the proof that we see around us is the American form of democracy, the 2022 version, certainly cannot.

SCIUTTO: Goodness, because it requires sacrifice and compromise, right? And there's not a lot of that --

WEIR: Absolutely.

SCIUTTO: -- in politics these days.

WEIR: Yes.

SCIUTTO: Bill Weir, good to have you on. Thanks so much.

WEIR: (INAUDIBLE).

SCIUTTO: Congressman Mike Quigley, part of a congressional delegation that just returned from Ukraine. Up next, he's going to tell us what President Zelenskyy said his country needs from the U.S. to win. Maybe push the Russians out. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:42:25]

SCIUTTO: In Ukraine, Russian strikes continue across the south and eastern part of the country. Overnight missiles hit both Odesa, the port city and Mykolaiv regions, strikes throwing additional scrutiny as Ukraine looks to export grain under an agreement negotiated with Russia. This comes just days after a bipartisan group of lawmakers returned from Ukraine where they met with President Zelenskyy, show the war's impact on Kyiv and the surrounding cities. Among them, Illinois Congressman Mike Quigley, and he joins me now.

Congressman, thanks for taking the time this morning.

REP. MIKE QUIGLEY (D-IL), CO-CHAIR, CONGRESSIONAL UKRAINE CAUCUS: Good morning, Jim.

SCIUTTO: So you were there as Russia struck the port of Odesa one day after Russia along with Ukraine and others had signed a deal to export Ukrainian grain. Russia has since attacked Odesa again. Do you believe Russia will abide by that deal? Do Ukrainian officials you met with believe they will abide by it?

QUIGLEY: Well, Ukrainian officials were quick to point out they weren't a signatory to that and they don't want to negotiate. You know, that deal was -- they remind us what struck between Russia and other countries. And their reaction, again, we were able to see this real time was, saying you can't trust the Russians.

I also believe that the Russians think that they can continue to shell these ports and not think that it's violating the deal. I don't know that they care that much about it. They may have gotten something from it, but they don't see that as dramatically inconsistent as the rest of the world does.

SCIUTTO: Is any grain going to get out of the country because the concerns are right, that this causes a global food crisis?

QUIGLEY: It will cause a global food crisis. And not just the breadbasket of Europe. Ukraine is the breadbasket of --

SCIUTTO: Yes.

QUIGLEY: -- Eastern Africa and much to the Middle East. There's some grain getting out in alternative paths. And perhaps some will go through the path through this negotiated deal, but it'll be a far more limited basis. You know, this is Putin channeling his inner Stalin using food as a weapon against the rest of the world.

SCIUTTO: Since the arrival of HIMARS, this U.S.-NATO supplied rocket system, Ukrainians have been hitting key Russian targets with greater accuracy and frequency, command posts, ammunition storage facilities. After speaking to Ukrainians there, is it their view, is it your view that these weapon systems are turning the war? QUIGLEY: They're making a dramatic difference. And we met with the defense ministry and President Zelenskyy that's what they wanted to talk about. It's pushing the Russians back and it's given the Ukrainians an opportunity through indirect fire to win the battle.

[10:45:08]

So, of course, look, you've seen the interesting history of how we have armed Ukraine from arming what we thought was going to be an insurgency with javelins and stingers to then how it seriously now, and I'll ease and of course, what's next. Weapon systems with even longer ranges that can do even more to help push back the Russian military, the attack comes.

SCIUTTO: With each additional weapon, right, a previous barrier goes down, right? Because initially, there was even hesitation to give those javelin missiles and others, they were worried they would fall into Russian hands and they use them that was key in Kyiv. They were hesitant to give in some of these longer range rocket systems, fear of how Russia would react.

But in each case, Russia has not given a catastrophic action towards the west say striking NATO. I wonder do you think NATO, the U.S. waited too long?

QUIGLEY: Well, I, honestly, believe I was saying so from the beginning that, you know, we should have adapted from again, battling what we thought was going to be an insurgency and stop worrying about Putin's red lines and start creating our own. And there I'm paraphrasing, the former commanding general to former commanding generals of NATO.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

QUIGLEY: At this point in time, when you see the genocide that's taking place, and the fact that a sovereign democratic country can be wiped off the face of the earth, we need to give them what they need.

SCIUTTO: Another topic, China and Taiwan, the Speaker of the House member, of course, your party, Nancy Pelosi, planning to visit there, but China really rattling the saber about how it might respond to this and there is growing concern within the Biden administration, that this would be too disruptive. I wonder, do you think it would be a mistake for the Speaker to follow through and go ahead with this trip?

QUIGLEY: You can't let Beijing dictate what the Speaker of the House can do. She want -- congressional delegations, I've been traveling to Taiwan for as long as I've been there and before, and that should continue. But they also traveled to Beijing. So Beijing has to understand that and they can't let -- we can't let them dictate that policy.

I understand the sensitivities involved, particularly when we're engaged in a proxy war elsewhere. But at the same time, we have to work with the Biden administration to sort this out.

SCIUTTO: Are you concerned based on your discussions that China's reaction to this would be particularly severe, that there are fears of shutting down the Taiwan Strait?

QUIGLEY: I am concerned that they will escalate. At the same time, the fact is we can't let China dictate all of that policy. But they're being extraordinarily aggressive in many things they've been doing the last 10 years. And I expect that that will continue. The United States and our allies in the region have to come to terms with that and recognize that that threads going to exist. The fact that the Speaker of the House wants to simply visit there shouldn't change our policy.

SCIUTTO: Congressman Mike Quigley, welcome back from Ukraine. We're glad you're safe.

QUIGLEY: Thank you. Take care.

HARLOW: Good to hear from him. All right, coming up a major shakeup in international cooperation in space. Russia says this morning it's time that the International Space Station is ending soon. More on that next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:53:14]

SCIUTTO: A potential major setback to international cooperation in the space community as well as the broader relationship between Russia and the West. Russia says this morning it is preparing to pull out of the International Space Station after 2024.

HARLOW: Our CNN Space and Defense Correspondent Kristin Fisher joins us following this story. I mean, it's so significant, obviously, given what a pariah Russia has become, too much of the Western world. And to have -- this was just space was a place where people work together and this really completely changes that right.

KRISTIN FISHER, CNN SPACE AND DEFENSE CORRESPONDENT: Potentially, Poppy, that's right. I think it's important to remember that this is not the first time that Russia's space agency Roscosmos has threatened to pull out of the International Space Station. This has happened many times in the past in response to U.S. sanctions on Russia and Russia's space sector, in particular.

But this threat may have more teeth and here's why. It's coming from the newly appointed head of Russia's space agency, a man by the name of Yuri Borisov. He's very close to Russia's President Vladimir Putin. He was just put in this position a few days ago. And the other reason why this threat may have a bit more teeth, Poppy and Jim, is because this was announced and posted on the Kremlin's official website. It says it was a meeting that took place between Borisov and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

And that when Putin asked him what he thought Russia should do with the International Space Station, Borisov responded that he thought that a decision has been made for Russia to pull out after 2024. And Putin -- and there's a video of this, Putin reportedly said, good.

Now all of this is happening on the same day that there just happens to be a conference happening on the International Space Station research and development here in Washington, D.C. The news broke about this just literally minutes before the conference started.

[10:55:09]

And so during the conference, the director of the ISS was asked about this. And she said that she had not received -- NASA had not received official word from Russia about this decision yet. And actually one of the astronauts, one of the NASA astronauts who's up there on the Space Station right now was also asked about this development. And he said he hadn't heard anything official yet either, because this news was just breaking.

So I think it's important to remember here that while this does sound very threatening, and indeed it is, and this threat likely has more teeth than previous threats, also looking at what Russia's Roscosmos's actions are --

SCIUTTO: Yes.

FISHER: -- Jim and Poppy. And just last week, they agreed to a seed swap or a crew swap agreement with NASA and Roscosmos. So we wait to get official word from this.

SCIUTTO: Yes. We'll see if it's a threat or a promise. Kristin Fisher, thanks so much.

HARLOW: Thanks, Kristin. And thanks to all of you for joining us today. I'm Poppy Harlow.

SCIUTTO: And Jim Sciutto. Our colleague Bianna Golodryga will start right after a quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)