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2,300-Plus Dead in Turkey, Syria After 7.8 Magnitude Earthquake; Navy Working to Recover Debris from Suspected Chinese Spy Balloon; Republicans Slam Biden's Response to Chinese Balloon. Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired February 06, 2023 - 10:00   ET

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

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JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: A very good Monday morning. I'm Jim Sciutto.

ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Erica Hill.

At this hour, rescue workers in Turkey and Syria are frantically searching for survivors after a massive 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck the two countries' border early this morning.

And that, of course, is just one of the building, that is the moment, as you can see, when the quake struck and entire building just collapsed into rubble. More than 2,300 people have now been reported dead. The death toll continues to rise, and it has been rising, frankly, exponentially.

In this video here, the moment a child was pulled from debris in Northwest Syria. That region, of course, also dealing with the heavy impact of years of a brutal civil war there.

SCIUTTO: Yes. One rescue there, and so many others feared for now.

Also this morning, as the U.S. Navy is working to recover debris from the suspected Chinese surveillance balloon shot down by an U.S. F-22 this weekend, the Pentagon is pushing back against China's threat to reserve the right to use, quote, necessary means to deal what it calls similar situations around China. A DOD spokesman, General Patrick Ryder, told me that the U.S. does not conduct such operations in Chinese airspace. And, by the way, U.S. surveillance flights are going to continue. We are going to have more on that in just a moment.

First, though, to those rescue operations underway, as we speak, in both Turkey and Syria, CNN's Jomana Karadsheh is in Istanbul. We see so many videos and pictures of entire buildings collapsed. Of course, you fear for all those who were inside those buildings when that happened. What are we learning about rescue operations and the rising death toll?

JOMANA KARADSHEH, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, as you mentioned earlier, Jim, more than 2,300 people confirmed killed so far in both Turkey and Syria, more than 1,500 of them in Turkey, but information is very slow to come out of Syria with bad comms in some parts of rebel-held parts of Syria. So, we will be waiting to hear more about the situation there in the coming hours.

When it is coming to Turkey, we have heard from the Turkish president describing this as the biggest disaster to hit his country in the last century since in 1939, a devastating earthquake that claimed thousands of lives.

And, of course, right now is you've got this rising death toll, you've got thousands of people who have been injured in both countries. And here in Turkey, thousands of buildings, according to officials, have been destroyed across this earthquake zone, a really vast, vast earthquake zone stretching across ten provinces in Southern Turkey, and they just don't know right now how many people are trapped under the rubble.

We have heard the Turkish officials also announcing that they have triggered a level 4 emergency, which means that they have requested international support. They are starting to put in formal requests in the last few moments.

We are hearing from NATO saying -- of course, Turkey a key member of NATO, saying it has sent a request to NATO and allies for assistance in dealing with the aftermath of the earthquake. The country has requested medical assistance, equipment, various urban search and rescue units as well as extreme weather-proof, fully equipped field hospital and technical personnel for assembly.

I mean, this is a very complex search and rescue operation. You are looking at a country right now that is facing this severe winter storm, below freezing temperatures across many of these parts of the country in the south, snow, ice making it very difficult for them to reach these devastated areas.

And, of course, there's also these continuing powerful aftershocks making it very difficult for the rescuers to operate as well as the tens of thousands of people who are now left with no shelter that Turkish authorities are trying to deal with that and trying to set up shelters for everyone, because they are asking people to stay indoors obviously after these continuing powerful aftershocks, 7.5 being the strongest, we are hearing from the official.

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And, of course, Jim, Erica, a lot of concern across the border in Syria, a country in no way equipped or ready to deal with this sort of the natural disaster, a population that has gone through so much over the past decade.

HILL: Yes, absolutely. Jomana, I appreciate the updates. Thank you.

SCIUTTO: Goodness, our prayers go to the people there.

Now to Chad Meyers in the CNN Weather Center. This is a hurricane hot zone, sadly, as you're explaining in the last hour, that there are fault lines here. Can you help us understand the magnitude of this and the aftershocks?

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Sure. The 7.8 did all of the damage but the aftershocks are now crumbling buildings that were damaged by that initial 7.8. This is one right there, that was at 6:00 local time, Eastern Time today, it got a yelling across the room, said 7.5. And I was like, no, it's 7.8. And they said, no, 7.5 aftershock, which is a tremendous earthquake all by itself. Then you can see all of these others that are in the 4s, 5s and even in the 6s.

This earthquake, the first one, was not really an epicenter earthquake where all the shaking happened under the dot. This was an epi-line. It was a line. It was a fracture of the Earth's crust that was almost 120 miles long. So, this fracture, this breaking of the crust happened along this line in the initial one. And now, all of these other aftershocks are happening here. Well, it is because there are fault lines. Obviously, there are. We have the Arabian and the Anatolian right through here, and even the African plate making almost a triple- point where the initial earthquake happened.

Yes, it is cold. We have a cold front coming through. Temperatures in the morning are going to be somewhere around 20.

Now, think about this. In this zone, there won't be a single person living in their apartment or their home. They are just not going to go back tonight. There is no way they can, because the earth is going to continue to shake and their homes are already severely damaged. The temperatures in the 20s with snow, and being outside, it is a very tough night for the survivors who are trying to dig through for survivors that are still under these buildings.

HILL: Yes, it is certainly why, and so important, as Jomana was just saying, to get those shelters in place, but we are talking about so, so many people. Chad, I appreciate it, thank you.

MYERS: You're welcome.

HILL: Also with us, Dr. Amjad Rass, he is the president of the Syrian-American Medical Society. So, you're actually in Detroit this morning, Doctor. I know, though, you have videos and you sent us a number of videos and photos of the hospitals that your organization operates in Syria. They are absolutely overwhelmed with patients right now. What are the folks on the ground telling you in terms of what they are seeing?

DR. AMJAD RASS, PRESIDENT, SYRIAN-AMERICAN MEDICAL SOCIETY: Well, in the hospital, they are overwhelmed with the number of casualties and the number of injured that impact (ph) our emergency rooms. And the shortage of staff and now we're seeing shortage of the supplies and medication with all of these patients need, basically the same treatment with head injuries and fractured bones.

This area has been a shelter for many of the displaced. Half of the 4 million who live in the area, 2 million, have been displaced at least once. Some of them have been displaced three times. Close to a million still living in temporary shelters, like tents, makeshift arrangements, and now they are displaced out of their homes. It is terrible to see the videos and to hear the news coming from inside Northwest Syria, yes.

SCIUTTO: Well, you have both Turkey and Syria asking for the outside help here. The trouble with the area you're describing there, it is still a war zone, an active war zone. Can international teams get in there safely now to provide some of that help?

RASS: They should. I mean, we have over the years, a lot of the local organizations have matured (ph) able to take on this task. Our organization, SAMS, and also our partners, White Helmet, and many, many, many others, not to mention everybody, I mean, safety is an issue for the rescuers. We have a lot of good organizations that can on some of these tasks and rescue Syrians, yes.

And the issue is not -- yes, go ahead.

SCIUTTO: Go ahead.

HILL: No, go ahead, Doctor.

RASS: No. I think the issue is not can they. The issue is like they should. Yes, they should. Yes.

HILL: And when you look at -- so there are the very real medical needs and concerns, right?

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And those have been exacerbated over the years, as we know, by Syria's civil war. When we look at the two, we're talking about the buildings, we're talking about the infrastructure, what we're seeing in Turkey, what are your concerns in Syria? Is it a similar situation in terms of the buildings that are left, just how vulnerable these buildings are and the added concern for people who are not already in a temporary concern, but the added concern of where can people sleep safely tonight?

RASS: Yes, (INAUDIBLE). They have temporary shelters already prepped for that from years ago. We don't have that in Syria. They have better buildings in Southern Turkey. Not all buildings in Syria are as strong or as weather-proof.

The other thing is the capacity of the health care and the shelters and the weather. The mental health, mental health is a big issue wherever a weather disaster happens (INAUDIBLE) or in a conflict war zone. We have seen it in Syria. We've seen in earthquake in Puerto Rico and others. And this is not any different.

SCIUTTO: Yes. The pain, the trauma, physical and mental will last many years after the event.

Well, Dr. Amjad Rass, we appreciate on what you're doing and we do hope that you get to help and the people there get the help they need. Thanks so much.

RASS: Thank you. SCIUTTO: Coming up next, another major story that we are following, new details about what the U.S. described as a Chinese surveillance balloon shot down by a U.S. fighter jet over the weekend. The U.S. Navy is now working to recover debris, intelligence collection in effect. What U.S defense officials are telling me now about Chinese threats going forward.

HILL: Also ahead, a former Manhattan prosecutor who quit his job when the D.A. declined to bring criminal charges against former President Trump is speaking out about why he believes that was a mistake.

And CNN goes inside the Dallas Zoo that has had multiple incidents of tampering over the last month. What the zoo officials tell us about the investigation.

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SCIUTTO: Right now, U.S. Navy ships and divers are searching for remnants of a suspected spy balloon from China after a U.S F-22 shot it down with a missile off of the coast of South Carolina over the weekend.

HILL: Now, President Biden is calling the mission a success. He says he ordered last week that it would be shot down immediately. He is, of course, though, facing pushback from a number of Republicans who say he simply waited too long here.

CNN's Natasha Bertrand joining us from the Pentagon. So, talk to us more about the strategy and the timing here, because that's what's getting a lot of attention in terms of the decision to shoot down that balloon.

NATASHA BERTRAND, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yes. Look, Erica, the administration is saying that this was a very deliberate method of action here, that they essentially briefed the president on Wednesday about the fact that this balloon was hovering over Montana for an extended period of time, something that was very unusual given the flight path of past balloons like this.

And so what happened was the president said, okay, shoot it down right now, but the military advised him not to do that because of the risk that the debris could pose to civilians on the ground as well as infrastructure.

And not only that but we are told that the officials also told the president that the best way to potentially preserve the payload of this balloon, essentially the equipment underneath the balloon that is used, according to the U.S., for that surveillance would be to shoot it down over water. Because, of course, it would not be shattering over land and it will be able to be recovered by the Navy vessels, for example, and divers. So, that really why the president decided to wait until Saturday when it was projected to be over the Atlantic to have this balloon shot down, guys. SCIUTTO: Well, we should also note that the U.S. has jamming capabilities, which U.S. officials say they did use while that Chinese balloon was over the U.S. Natasha Bertrand at the Pentagon, thanks so much.

Right now, there are hard questions about what China could in retaliation for the U.S. taking down their balloon, the Chinese foreign ministry over the weekend reserving the right to act similarly. We should note, the U.S. flies both and crewed and unscrewed surveillance aircraft Chinese airspace. This include the unmanned Global Hawk aircraft. It's remotely operated. It can fly at high altitudes, you see a picture there. Also the P-8 Poseidon, that aircraft is crewed. It's armed with weapons, such as missiles and torpedoes. I had a chance to fly on board one of those during a mission, this over the South China Sea, in 2015, when the Chinese Navy angrily confronted that aircraft. Have a listen.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is the Chinese Navy. This is the Chinese Navy. Please go away quickly.

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SCIUTTO: The question is what China does now or today if a U.S. aircraft did not heed that warning. I asked Pentagon Spokesman, Brigadier General Patrick Ryder, about China's veiled threats of perhaps some form of retaliation over those flights over the weekend. He told me a couple of things, and I'm quoting here. Let's be clear, the PRC surveillance balloon was in U.S. territorial airspace, a violation of our sovereignty. We do not conduct such operations in Chinese airspace, so there is no similar situation.

The U.S. will continue to sail, fly and operate anywhere international law allows. We always take the safety and security of our service members seriously no matter where they may be serving.

We should note that there are some disputes about what constitutes Chinese airspace, as there is over the South China Sea.

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That presents questions going forward about the possibility of one side misunderstanding the other side or taking unexpected action. It's a story we'll continue to follow very closely.

HILL: Joining us now to discuss as well, Margaret Talev, Senior Contributor for Axios, and Susan Shirk, former deputy assistant secretary of state in the Bureau of East Asia and Pacific Affairs. Susan is also the author of the book, Overreach, How China Derailed its Peaceful Rise. It's good to have both of you with us this morning.

When we look at how this is playing out, I found it interesting, Susan, that one of the things that David Sanger pointed out in The New York Times that this entire incident really speaks volumes about just how little communication there is between Washington and Beijing. And he also said that it was revealing that once this was spotted, Chinese officials did not reach out to try to come to some sort of understanding or a deal. Do you read anything into that?

SUSAN SHIRK, FORMER DEPUTY ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF STATE: I read a lot into that. It's -- we have so little understanding of the decision- making process inside China, which, of course, makes it much more dangerous for everyone.

And the United States made major efforts to communicate with the Chinese side at every level. And they were -- basically, the Chinese either didn't answer the phone or said that they needed more time. And, of course, we didn't have a lot of time.

So, having those lines of communication during a crisis is very important, as I tell myself even back in the Clinton administration with the accidental bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade.

SCIUTTO: Margaret Talev, we used to say politics and that the water's edge, of course, they haven't for a long time. Everything is political, everything is partisan, and these attacks principally coming from Republicans about how soon the U.S. showed us to shoot this down. When we look at the decision-making process, here the White House explanation is DOD advised do not shoot this down over U.S. territory, we cannot control where the debris lands. What is the Republican response to that explanation?

MARGARET TALEV, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, Jim, you've heard that instant Republican response like before there has been any detailed briefings, before information has been gathered, it is things like Marco Rubio saying that the president has committed a dereliction of duty, it's things like the House GOP conference having serious discussions about whether to do some formal vote a resolution to rebuke the president on the same day of his state of the union address.

Look, I think a lot was made about this incident and the fact that it came right before Secretary of State Blinken was supposed to go to China, but it is also really important that it happened right before Biden is to deliver the state of the union address. And I think whether this was China's plan or not, China now has a real test case for how Americans could react both socially and politically to future intrusions into U.S. space. Will the military shoot it down right away? How will Republicans message against the president? And if they do, who will Americans perceive as the enemy or the problem, China or the opposing political party?

And because the U.S. Media is not centered, China can see all of this happening in real-time, in polling, on Instagram, on cable T.V. And so, yes, there is an intel -- like a military intel-gathering operation but there is a also major political and social intelligence gathering operation happening right now.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

HILL: And, Susan, to that point, does this become in some ways a win for China looking at the way it has continued to fuel the political posturing and finger-pointing in this country?

SHIRK: Well, I guess it is a win for China if America overreacts. But as I compare the civil military interactions in the United States with what must have been going inside China, it seems to me that the contrast between the pragmatic, objective interactions between our military and our president in making a sober decision about how to handle the crisis is very, very much different than what must have been going on inside of China.

SCIUTTO: And we should note, listen, China lost an advanced surveillance balloon here and they also a summit that they wanted, that they did want to speak to U.S. officials as they try to revive their economy after two, three really rough years.

SHIRK: I mean, this is self-defeating overreach on the part of Xi Jinping's regime, really.

[10:25:06]

SCIUTTO: Yes, it is a good point. Listen, we're going to keep talking because a lot of questions to be answered. Susan Shirk, Margaret Talev, thanks so much to both of you.

HILL: Still to come, an off-duty NYPD officer fighting for his life this morning after he was shot while trying to buy a car. A live update, next.

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