Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Turkey And Syria Hit With Earthquake; Ukraine Troops Train On Tanks; Biden's State Of The Union Address; Beyonce Breaks Record. Aired 9:30-10a ET

Aired February 06, 2023 - 09:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:34:16]

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: Well, the scenes from Turkey and Syria this morning are devastating. And right now there's a desperate search for survivors underway in both countries. This is where a catastrophic -- a massive earthquake struck. It's now killed, the estimates, 1,900 people. Sad fact is that number is expected to grow, and a lot, possibly into the tens of thousands. Concerns being scenes like this, entire buildings collapsed.

ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: It is just -- it is heartbreaking and so hard to wrap your mind around how many other areas may be just like these pictures.

Multiple powerful aftershocks have been reported across the region this morning. Officials say at least 120 aftershocks have taken place in Turkey.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. MAZEN KEWARA, TURKEY COUNTY DIRECTOR, SYRIAN AMERICAN MEDICAL SOCIETY (SAMS): We are continue experiencing aftershocks (INAUDIBLE).

[09:35:06]

So, the last one was 7.6. So, it's very, very strong. So, we cannot go back to our buildings and apartments.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: CNN's Jomana Karadsheh is in Istanbul, back now with an update for us.

I think that sets the scene so well. There have been so many of these strong, strong aftershocks. And the concern, people can't go back into their buildings.

JOMANA KARADSHEH, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely. A big concern, Erica, we were hearing from Turkey's disaster and emergency management agency in the last few moments saying they've recorded 130 aftershocks. I mean, speaking to colleagues and people in southern Turkey right now, they're very concerned. They don't know where to go. Authorities are trying to create shelter

for tens of thousands of people across this region. We're talking about a vast area of southern Turkey, ten provinces, that have been impacted by this earthquake. And, of course, in Syria as well.

And also, unfortunately, in the last few moments, we have gotten an update with more than 2,300 people confirmed killed in both Turkey and Syria right now. This is after Turkish officials raised the death toll right now to nearly 1,500 people who have been confirmed killed.

But we were talking about thousands of buildings that have been damaged, destroyed, many flattened across this earthquake zone. The concern is they don't really know yet how many people are trapped under the rubble. So there's a lot of concern that the death toll is going to significantly increase in the coming hours.

Of course, we are running out of daylight hours right now, making this already very complex search and rescue operation even harder for the teams on the ground. They are saying, of course, the current weather conditions, this winter storm, the ice, the snow making it very difficult for them to move around, to reach areas. That they are going to try using helicopters to reach many of the devastated areas.

And, of course, a lot of concern for what is going on across the border as well in Syria with hundreds of people killed, both in rebel- controlled areas in the northern part of the country. A very vulnerable population there. Hundreds of thousands of people who have been displaced time and time again, living in absolutely - in miserable conditions, in urgent need of aid at the best of times.

So you can imagine the kind of conditions they are going through right now. And both countries, I can tell you right now, are calling for international support and help with the rescue operations as well as aid.

We know that Turkey is starting to get a lot of support from the international community and now calls for Syria to get the same, especially in the rebel-held parts of the country that really have very little to deal with this catastrophic situation right now.

SCIUTTO: Goodness. Just such deep concern for folks who may still be trapped under those many buildings. We know they're doing the best to find them.

Jomana Karadsheh, thanks so much.

HILL: Ukrainian troops today are set to begin training on German Leopard tanks. This the equipment that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had fought, of course, for months to get.

SCIUTTO: Yes. After a long debate, but they're going, as are U.S. tanks. This comes at a critical time as Ukraine's defense minister says Russia will likely mark, or attempt to mark, the anniversary of the invasion last year with what it hopes to be a major spring offensive. CNN international diplomatic editor Nic Robertson, he is live from

near Tapa Army Base in Estonia. This is where NATO is holding training exercises with the same equipment.

Nic, you're getting a firsthand look at why it could be a while before we see these German-made Leopard tanks on the front lines. Why is that? I mean it's a training question, isn't it?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: It is a training question. Look, there's one of the Leopard II tanks over my shoulder there. That's being used by the Danish military here at the moment as part of this big exercise. There are 44 tanks here. There's the British Challenger tanks.

Look, the deal with these tanks is, and the Danish will tell you this, we've been speaking to some of their officers, you can put a crew in one of those and have the four individual people in it, the commander, the driver, the gunner, all up to speed on their jobs in two weeks, but to get them to be actually in -- as a team, battle effective, that takes two months.

Then they've got to train up with a platoon, with a squadron. They have like 14 of these tanks working together. That can take up to a couple of years they say. What they're training for here, and some of the big takeaway lessons are from the battlefield, maneuvers we're watching here, they're training combined forces, right?

[09:40:04]

The exercise here is to do exactly what Ukrainians want to do with their tanks, which is punch through, but you use infantry to do it, the French infantry, Estonian infantry, working with these Danish and British tanks here to simulate that, punching through enemy lines, taking territory. And the takeaways here are that, again, it's training.

You need to coordinate your infantry troops with your tank troops. This is getting -- the one behind me just over my shoulder here it getting fueled up. That Leopard II getting fueled up there. You've got to have everything in place in the battlefield coordinated to be able to crack through those enemy lines. That's the take away here. And this is going to be the challenge going forward for the Ukrainian forces.

But they're - today, for the first time, getting their hands on these tanks, getting to train in them. That's a big step.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

HILL: Yes, an important first step.

Nic Robertson, great to have you there. Appreciate it. Thank you.

Up next, the message President Biden plans to deliver to Americans during his State of the Union Address tomorrow night, and the pressure on the president now as he prepares to speak before a divided Congress.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:45:28]

HILL: Today, President Biden returns to the White House from Camp David as he prepares to deliver the State of the Union Address tomorrow night to a divided Congress. His administration has already been out there previewing the president's message of building a stronger U.S. economy. And, in D.C., U.S. Capitol Police ramping up security, as we often see, adding now a non-scalable fence around the Capitol grounds.

Joining me to discuss, Laura Barron-Lopez, CNN political analyst and White House correspondent for PBS "Newshour."

Good to see you this morning.

Look, the administration would love to focus solely, as we know, on the state of the union, but the reality is this Chinese balloon is what's dominating politics and conversations in Washington, as we know. House Republicans even considering this vote ahead of the State of the Union that would criticize President Biden and his actions, his response there.

How much is this China spy balloon issue overshadowing the State of the Union Address?

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, it's certainly something that the administration is going to have to address. We know that President Biden, in the past, has made competitiveness with China and support of allied democracies a big piece of his speeches. He talked about this in his last State of the Union speech. And the White House has said to expect him to, again, address China and the administration's efforts to try to combat it.

HILL: So, as we - as we watch that and see what, you know, may or may not make it in tomorrow night, there's also the reality of where things stand. As we know, the administration wants to talk about the economy, wants to tout some of the successes of the first two years of the Biden presidency in this address. The reality is, some of this new polling really isn't on President Biden's side.

From "The Washington Post"/ABC poll, 62 percent of Americans think the president has not accomplished not very much or little or nothing. So, barely more than a third say he's accomplished a great deal or a good amount.

Is there a sense that anything he can say tomorrow will change those feelings?

BARRON-LOPEZ: Well, he's certainly going to try, Erica, because the president is well aware and has talked in the past about when he was vice president with former President Barack Obama and he said that he didn't think that they did a good job of selling their wins on the Affordable Care Act. And so this entire year, and this second half of his first term, is

very much focused on implementation and that sales job, trying to tell the American public what exactly was passed because we've seen in polling time and time again that they may not be aware of what was passed this that bipartisan infrastructure law or aware of what was passed in the Inflation Reduction Act.

And some of those aren't even going to take effect until about this year, like prescription drug reform. And so that's something that the president and vice president, Kamala Harris, are going to be talking about a lot and we've seen them in recent days travel across the east coast on a tour to try to talk about the infrastructure law, as well as they're going to travel again right after the State of the Union, the president going to Wisconsin. And so this is something that is going to be a big part of his run up to a potential 2024 run.

HILL: Laura, always good to see you. Appreciate it. Thank you.

BARRON-LOPEZ: Thank you.

SCIUTTO: Still ahead, she is known as Queen Bee, but Grammy host Trevor Noah says you should now call her the GOAT. Beyonce breaks a big record at the Grammy's, but fans still say she was robbed.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:52:49]

SCIUTTO: Well, Beyonce has once again proven why she is the Queen Bee. Last night she won just four more Grammy Awards, becoming the most highly decorated Grammy artist of all time.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BEYONCE: Thank you so much. I'm trying not to be too emotional. And I'm trying to just receive this night.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: I mean, what a moment. You can understand why she would be emotional.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

HILL: Beyonce now has, in case you aren't keeping track, we are, 32 trophies. She was shut out, though, in some major categories, including Album of the Year. That has some fans none too pleased this morning.

CNN's Chloe Melas joining us now.

Look, a lot of Beyonce fans, as we know, Chloe, think she should have swept all - she did very well, but they think she really should have swept all the categories last night.

CHLOE MELAS, CNN ENTERTAINMENT REPORTER: I think that when you love an artist and when you are a part of their fan base, of course you're going to feel that way.

HILL: Yes.

MELAS: And she has a very loud, wonderfully outspoken fan base. I am part of the Bee Hive. But I'm also part of all of the hives of all - everyone, right? I don't - I don't pick favorites.

Now, Beyonce, "Renaissance," was incredible. Again, she's the most awarded Grammy artist of all time, right, so that's a massive win. It was a huge moment for her. Imagine if that hadn't happened. That just would have been such more of a heartbreak for her fans. But she didn't win Album of the Year.

But someone who did was Harry Styles for "Harry's House." I got to say, Harry Styles had a huge year. He also had that movie with Olivia Wilde called "Don't Worry, Darling." You know, it's -- he is somebody where he really broke out of One Direction. He proved, like some others that paved the way before him, like Justin Timberlake, that you can leave a boy band and have incredible solo success.

So, I'm happy for him. I know his ex, Taylor Swift, was happy.

HILL: Yes.

MELAS: She was up there giving him a standing ovation, one of the only people first who stood up because a lot of people were either routing for Beyonce or Adele. And Adele was visibly upset. But, look, I think that everybody has their moment and I know Beyonce hasn't won album of the year, yet, but I'm sure she'll accomplice it feat sometime in her career.

HILL: Yes, there were a lot of big moments. Kim Petras, you know, first transgender winner, really important, really powerful speech that she made. There was a lot happening last night. Major tribute to hip hop.

MELAS: Oh.

[09:55:01]

HILL: And now there's some questions -- Jim - I know Jim has a very important question about what's going to happen today. Right, Jim?

SCIUTTO: Well, tickets for Beyonce's world tour, they go on pre-sale today. I know that. We had a bit of a fiasco, one might say, with Taylor Swift tickets just a few weeks ago. Is Ticketmaster going to do anything about that?

MELAS: Ticketmaster, Jim, is under so much scrutiny right now that they are trying to do everything right. So what they did is that they allowed fans to join this pre-sale, sort of like what we saw with Taylor Swift, but they think this is a little bit more foolproof. And fans had to get a special code to enter the pre-sale yesterday. And then anybody else is entered into this lottery. It still sounds complicated to me.

HILL: Yes.

MELAS: But we're going to see what happens. But those do go on sale today. It's a massive tour. It's Beyonce's first tour in six years.

So, knowing Beyonce, it will probably break the internet.

SCIUTTO: Wow.

HILL: Massive tour and massive test for Ticketmaster. We'll see.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

HILL: Chloe, appreciate it.

MELAS: Thank you.

SCIUTTO: Thanks so much.

HILL; Still to come here, we are live in Turkey where rescuers and rescuers in Syria are racing to save thousands of people injured or believed to be trapped after this catastrophic earthquake and a number of aftershocks. At least 2,300 people have been killed. A numberer that just continues to rise this morning. Stay with us for the very latest.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)