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People in Kramatorsk Rush to Find Shelter Amid New Russian Attacks; U.S Boosts Military in Philippines Amid Fears China Could Invade Taiwan; Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) Appears Hopeful After Critical Debt Limit Meeting with Biden. Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired February 02, 2023 - 10:00   ET

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

[10:00:00]

BIANNA GOLODRYGA, CNN ANCHOR: Top of the hour. Good morning, everyone. I'm Bianna Golodryga.

New this morning, a Russian missile strikes in Ukraine, this time targeting rescue workers in the eastern city of Kramatorsk. Officials say they were trying to save the survivors of a missile attack carried out last night when Russian launched another round of strikes. CNN is at the blast site and we'll take you there in just a moment.

Also this hour, new tensions between the U.S. and China, Chinese officials condemning the U.S.'s move to gain access to bases in the Philippines close to Taiwan. We'll have more on that in just a moment.

And on Capitol Hill, we're expecting to hear soon from House Speaker Kevin McCarthy after his big meeting with President Biden yesterday on the debt ceiling, and just before a divisive vote to remove Democratic Congresswoman Ilhan Omar from the foreign affairs committee.

But, first, let's go straight to Ukraine. CNN is on the ground, near the eastern Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk, where city officials say the Russians are again targeting civilians with missile strikes on the city.

Joining me live from Pokrovsk, which is close to the frontlines there, is CNN Senior International Correspondent Frederik Pleitgen. So, Fred, I know you were on Kramatorsk earlier today, quite close to some of these attacks. Now, two attacks, right, one overnight, and as we mentioned, one happening as rescue workers were coming into that apartment complex.

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that is absolutely correct. There was a first attack that happened overnight in Kramatorsk and hit a residential building. The Ukrainians are saying that it was hit, Bianna, by an Iskander missile, which is pretty heavy surface-to-surface missile with a big warhead. A building was pretty much flattened by that strike. The Ukrainians are saying that three people were killed, one person was still missing.

So, at that site, there was an active search and rescue operation going on. There was a big search and rescue operation, a lot of cranes being in use, more than 100 police officers alone were at the scene. Now, we went to Kramatorsk earlier today to film of some of what was going on there, some of that search and rescue operation. As we arrived in Kramatorsk, at the site of that first blast, as we parked our cars and got out, there was a second missile attack targeting the building that we had just parked in front of.

So, I would say that the first missile hit about 40 or 50 yards away from where we were. It was a giant blast. You could also tell it was a very big missile. And, obviously, a lot of people then went running for cover. We also tried to make our way to safety, to a hardened location. And as we were going there, I turned around and looked up and I saw a second missile hit the exact same building once again.

Now, the Ukrainians are saying that there were further people who were wounded in that attack. They say that this time, it was two S-300 missiles that struck in that second strike. Those are normally used to shoot down airplanes, Bianna. And if they are used against ground targets, they are very inaccurate. And, of course, if they're used against ground targets in densely populated urban centers, it makes things all the more dangerous.

However, the bottom line of the whole thing was that there was a place where there was an active search and rescue operation, and that place was targeted in a densely populated area once again today by the Russian military, Bianna.

GOLODRYGA: I mean, it has the hallmarks of yet another war crime committed by Russians, Fred. And this is coming as E.U. officials are in Kyiv today, and Ukrainians continue with their two main asks. One is that fast-track membership to join the E.U. and the other is for more advanced, long range weaponry, ATACMS and obviously F-16s. Any indication that either one of those asks will be granted any time soon?

PLEITGEN: Yes. I think right now, western governments, Bianna, as far as those fighter jets are concerned, they're really saying that, at the moment, that's not something that's in the cards. That doesn't necessarily mean that down the line, it is not something that could possibly happen. But I think right now, it is going to be very difficult to do that.

But one of the things, of course, that Ukrainians would really want is those longer range missiles. That's something -- I have spoken to so many Ukrainian officials over the past couple of weeks that we've been in the country, and all of them say longer distance weapons are absolutely necessary. They need them, they say, to stop some of those the Russian logistic lines that have been put further away from the line by the Russians to avoid some of the multiple rocket launching systems that the Ukrainians have, but also, for instance, to prevent the Russians from conducting strikes like the ones that we saw today, which happened from a further distance. Those missiles can travel pretty far distances, and the Ukrainians say they need something to be able stop that from happening.

Now, currently, that is not the case, the missiles that the Russians used today almost impossible to intercept. So, the Ukrainians are saying, we need to hit those things before they can actually take off. In order to do that, they need longer range missiles. So, that is definitely very high on what the Ukraine -- on the agenda of what the Ukrainians want, and they hope that they get it from the U.S. and possibly from the U.S.'s allies as well, Bianna.

GOLODRYGA: Yes. And all this is happening as Russia is planning for a new front, right, any time soon and a new offensive, Ukraine planning for a counteroffensive there as well.

[10:05:00]

Fred Pleitgen on the ground, thank you so much, stay safe.

Also new this morning, Chinese officials responding now as the U.S. announces that it will have new access to bases in the Philippines, closer to Taiwan. China claiming the move raises tensions and, quote, endangers regional peace and instability.

CNN Pentagon Correspondent Oren Liebermann joins me live from the Pentagon. And, Oren, this is a significant development because it brings the most troops to that island that the U.S. has had there in some 30 years.

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely. And that's why China is so upset about this. We will get to that in just a moment here. But a major announcement coming from the United States and the Philippines with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin meeting the national security leadership of the Philippines, including his counterpart and the president, and expanding upon this agreement, what's officially known as the enhanced defense cooperation agreement. That gives the U.S. access to military bases. They will now have access to more military bases.

And although neither the U.S. nor the Philippines have said what bases those will be, we know in the past they have expressed interests in bases in the North Philippines. And that's where we can bring up this map to get a sense of why China is reacting the way it is, because that could put U.S. forces at Philippine military bases even closer to Taiwan than before.

We see on the northern side of Okinawa, where the U.S. recently announced a newly reorganized Marine unit just a few weeks back. That's just 200 miles off the northern coast, and now potentially less than 200 miles off the southern coast, China and Taiwan could be looking at some U.S. forces there as well depending on how this agreement is plays out. And that is why you see China responding with this accusation of the American selfish agenda and accusing the U.S. of being the one to affect the regional stability.

But it is also bigger than that. The former Philippine president, Rodrigo Dueterte, had moved the Philippines closer to Beijing. And this is the current, the new administration, essentially realigning that, still careful with how it operates vis-a-vis Beijing, but also making it clear it is moving the Philippines back towards the United States. And that for the U.S. is an accomplishment especially as it shifts towards that region, towards the Indo-Pacific region and efforts to contain and deter China, especially as some officials more concerned than ever about a potential Beijing invasion of Taiwan. Bianna?

GOLODRYGA: Yes. Those officials include a U.S. Air Force general who just warned of just that. Personally, though, the U.S. government said that that does not bear true to how they view the situation right now. Nonetheless, very alarming. Oren Liebermann, thank you.

Well, back on Capitol Hill, we are waiting to hear from House Speaker McCarthy ahead of a vote of to remove Congresswoman Ilhan Omar from the foreign affairs committee and following its high-stakes meeting with President Biden on the debt ceiling.

Let's bring CNN Chief Congressional Correspondent Manu Raju. So, Manu, where do things stand right now, specifically in terms of Ilhan Omar's fate?

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It almost certainly will be today that she will be removed from the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Kevin McCarthy, the speaker, making clear to reporters, told me and others yesterday and the days after, he said he does have the votes to kick her off the committee over her past comments which were criticized as anti-Semitic, she apologized for those comments. But, nevertheless, he has vowed for the past year or so to take her off of the committee after the Democrats removed two Republican members over their comments in the last Congress.

Now, this will require a vote of the full house. We expect that to happen later today. Kevin McCarthy can only afford to lose four Republican votes. He is likely to lose at least one, but they believe they can keep the defections lower.

Now, once they get past this issue, then the bigger issue about avoiding the first ever debt default in U.S. history looms large. Kevin McCarthy did meet with President Biden yesterday. They both sounded positive after the meeting, but they also made clear, Kevin McCarthy did, there is a lot more work to do. And McCarthy told me last night that he rejected one of the key issues, one of the key demands from the White House, which is to raise the national debt ceiling don't include any conditions, no strings attached. But he told me he would not accept a clean debt ceiling increase.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. KEVIN MCCARTHY: I did not go in there with any predetermined things we had to have. This is our very first discussion. The discussion today was he was never going to negotiate with me. So, we just spent an hour together.

We had times that we disagreed, but in the parts that we are disagreeing, we are very honest and I was very straight-forward on things I would not do?

RAJU: Like what?

MCCARTHY: Like just raise a clean debt ceiling. That's not going to happen. We're not just going to keep spending and just raise the limit on our credit card. We're going to do something different. But I am telling him that, but I am more than willing to sit down and talk to him and work with him on how we change this together.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: And that is really where the challenge begins, Bianna, that he'll have to include some level of spending cuts that Republicans will have to agree on, what exactly they want.

[10:10:07]

McCarthy indicating there he did not detail specific cuts that he wants to tie it to raising the national borrowing limit. Democrats, they didn't want any cuts, whatsoever. They want to avoid the first ever default, pass and increase the national debt ceiling here. So, getting an agreement among the Republicans, getting the White House to agree on that, all of major questions about whether McCarthy can do all that ahead of what we're looking at a potential default in the summer if Congress doesn't act. Bianna?

GOLODRYGA: All right. The stakes are high. Manu Raju, thank you.

Well, with me now, CNN Political Director David Chalian. So, David, it is fitting that it is Groundhogs Day, because here we are once again talking about this very issue. I mean, year-over-year, I feel like this is where we've been. That having been said, was it premature given everything that Manu just laid out for Kevin McCarthy to come out, as he optimistic as he was, saying that believed he'd find, quote, common ground with President Biden?

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: No, I don't think so. Because I think there are two different things we're talking about here. Kevin McCarthy made clear yesterday, and as Manu just detailed, there is a long road to go here. Nobody expected yesterday to have the president or the speaker emerge from that meeting with a roadmap to exactly how this is going to get resolved. This was just the very beginning of to process.

But I think that for both of their benefits and sort of the message that they want to put out there on this, both the president today at the prayer breakfast and Speaker McCarthy yesterday kind of just wanted to turn down the temperature a bit. They were doing so much shadowboxing before they sat down. So, to emerge from this and express optimism about a professional, respectful relationship while still acknowledging the very hard work of actually finding a path to avoid default remains ahead of them, I think both things can be true at the same time.

GOLODRYGA: So much of this also is about wording, right? I mean, you have pasts to look to where you've had President Biden as vice president, you had President Obama, they actually, in these circumstances, did start to negotiate and that did not lead to much. So, that is why you have President Biden now saying, I have been there, done that, and this is why we are firm when we say we want a clean debt bill. And that if we want to talk about deficit reduction, we can talk about that separately. I mean, do you think that he is going to move at all from that in the next four months?

CHALIAN: Well, I think that remains to be seen, Bianna. But you are pointing out it is all in the eye of the beholder, right? So, if indeed Kevin McCarthy sticks to his position and this conference holds him to the position of a clean debt ceiling being nonnegotiable, not something that they're going to pass, well, then does the White House start agreeing to some spending cuts that happened simultaneously in a separate package? Is there a path around the semantics of a clean debt ceiling hike or negotiation? It seems to me that's going to be the resolution here.

They are clearly going to negotiate. There's no doubt about that. What the White House is trying to accomplish here is saying, we have got to pay the bills on the money already spent. And that has to be separate and apart from any negotiation on spending cuts.

GOLODRYGA: Well, one thing that does seem certain is that Ilhan Omar will be removed from the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Is that, again, just another symbolic move and perhaps a campaign pledge for Republicans to say that they fulfilled or does that, do you think, lead to something more serious and even toxic in this new Congress in the months to come?

CHALIAN: Well, it is certainly the former. There's no doubt about that. It is a fulfillment of a campaign pledge. I don't know if Washington could get more toxic politically. It is a pretty polarized town that reflects our polarized politics across the nation. And I think this is example number one today of how that plays out.

Whether or not it is going to have real world ramifications for the way things get done in Congress from here on out, I am not so sure, but it is certainly something that the Republican base has been demanding, is enthused about and that Kevin McCarthy wants to prove after that really elongated battle to become speaker that he can keep the conference together on things and actually even something that is a message item, keep the conference together and deliver on some of what they promised back in November.

GOLODRYGA: I like the strategy of yours, David, keep the expectations really low on the pessimistic side, because you never know, tomorrow we may be surprised. David Chalian, I think that your experience suggests otherwise, but we appreciate your time and your insight. Thank you.

CHALIAN: Thanks, Bianna.

GOLODRYGA: Well, still to come, Hunter Biden and his legal team taking on his right-wing critics and calling for criminal investigations, who he is accusing of trying to weaponize the contents of a laptop.

Plus, as black history month begins, new outrage over the Florida governor restricting how black history and diversity are taught in schools.

[10:15:05] We will ask a Florida state senator about his concerns.

And as artificial intelligence keeps getting smarter, could the way we work be about to change? We will take a look at the jobs that could be the most vulnerable. That's next.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN BUSINESS AND POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: Which jobs is A.I. coming after first?

SHELLY PALMER, PROFESSOR OF ADVANCED MEDIA, SYRACUSE UNIVERSITY: If you are a middle manager, you are doomed, any kind of commodity salesperson, report writers and journalists.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GOLODRYGA: Hunter Biden is fighting back with a new legal strategy related to the spreading of his personal data. His attorneys are now calling for state and federal agencies to investigate several people involved in disseminating contents of his laptop.

[10:20:00]

That includes a computer repair shop owner, Rudy Giuliani and a number of right-wing political figures.

Now, this marks the first time President Biden's son and his legal team have publicly acknowledge that it was his personal data purported to be found on that laptop left at the Delaware repair shop.

Joining us now for more to discuss, former U.S. Attorney Michael Moore. Michael, great to have you on. So, you call this new strategy -- actually, I'm going to quote you. You said it reeks of desperation. How so?

MICHAEL MOORE, FORMER U.S. ATTORNEY: Yes. Well, I am glad to be with you. I mean, what a ridiculous day in the news on this, because it is a typical strategy. Any time that you have somebody in the crosshairs of an investigation, and they feel like that the walls are squeezing in on them a little bit, what is the first thing they typically do, and that is to attack the investigators.

And I'm not justifying or giving any credibility to the investigation at all, but Hunter Biden has got a good lawyer. So, I'm sure he has a reason for sending out the letter. But at the same time, as you noted in sort of the lead-up remarks, they are acknowledging that the information is his. And this essentially was from the same individual that has basically denied whether or not it is even a laptop that he may have dropped off or may have been out there. He doesn't remember if he dropped a laptop also.

The victim here really is the president who is having to deal with these family distractions at a time when we ought to be talking about the policy and the debt ceiling, and he is obviously -- he is a son, he loves his son, but he is having to deal with this too.

GOLODRYGA: Well, if you talk about the president being the ultimate victim here, and we also mentioned Abbe Lowell, who is Hunter Biden's attorney, he is a prominent attorney and well known in Washington circles especially. Why do you think that he would make this shift in strategy now of all times before we have even heard whether President Biden will, in fact, officially announce that he is running for president again?

MOORE: Well, you have got the Republican-controlled Congress now, and they are trying now to use their oversight powers to reach into the Biden family past. And while I think that's an illegitimate use of the powers and abusive and one of the reasons I think they won't hold Congress very long, you know, Abbe Lowell is trying to get out in front of the story. He knows that the committees are going to meet. He knows there is going to be discussions about the laptop. He knows there are going to be subpoenas issued and there's going to be public statements made, as politicians try to throw some more red meat to their base, and so I think he's just trying to get at in front of this.

And so he is representing his client, which he is supposed to do, but at the same time, there are political ramifications of it. I mean, who would have ever thought we would be at a time where one day the FBI is searching the home of the current, the sitting president, and on another day, we are talking about whether or not the president's son has a laptop out there floating around information that could be damaging to the president.

So, this is -- it is sort of a sad day for me for politics as whole, but I don't blame Abbe Lowell for getting out front the story. I think he's done the right thing to represent his client.

GOLODRYGA: You are talking about the political ramification, but, obviously, there are legal consequences and investigation ongoing separate from this into Hunter Biden right now with the Justice Department. And that has to do with Hunter Biden's taxes and his use of a firearm. These are two separate issues. You don't think that he is trying to -- I mean, is that what you are trying to say that he is coming out ahead of where this investigation goes?

MOORE: I think that he is a smart lawyer and he knows that in a legitimate criminal investigation, they are not going to be publishing stories and having press conferences about what may or may not be on the computer or what may or may not be happening in the investigation. At the same time, he has got a Congress who is going to be out there every day after committee hearings trying to trumpet things that they found or things that they want to say or lies that they want to tell.

And so he is simply saying, let's talk about this so that we keep the story focused on my client. We know that we are going to have to deal with statements made by politicians, but at the same time we may have a criminal case. All he has done is ask that there be an investigation of how this information got out there. There are civil suits to do that. You can file injunctions, all kind of things. But in this case, he knows that you cannot separate or divorce politics from the law.

GOLODRYGA: All right. Michael Moore, we'll have to leave it there, always great to have you on. Thank you.

MOORE: Great to be with you. Thank you.

GOLODRYGA: The governor of Florida proposes banning state universities from spending money on diversity and inclusion programs. Up next, a Florida state senator joins us with his concerns about the impact this could have on the quality of state schools.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:25:00]

GOLODRYGA: It is black history month, a time to recognize the contributions African-Americans have made to this country. But in Florida, the governor is pushing a plan to ban diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. Ron DeSantis announced a proposal this week that would ban state universities from funding those programs in hopes that they will, quote, wither on the vine.

I want to discuss this now with Florida State Senator Shevrin Jones who serves in the state's 34th district. Thank you so much for joining us.

So, Governor DeSantis has called these discriminatory and vows to keep universities from funding them regardless of where that money is coming from.

[10:30:08]