Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Newsroom
U.S. Shoots Down Object Over Alaska Airspace; FBI Removes Classified Document From Pence's Indiana Home; Trump Team Turns Over Laptop And More Records; World Food Programme Says More Aid Needed For Displaced; White Helmets Halt Rescue Operations In Parts Of Syria; Biden Heads To Poland Ahead Of Ukraine War Anniversary. Aired 5-6a ET
Aired February 11, 2023 - 05:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[05:00:00]
(MUSIC PLAYING)
KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Hello and welcome to all of you watching us here in the United States and all around the world.
Ahead on CNN NEWSROOM, U.S. military taking down another object flying over American waters just days after the downing of the suspected Chinese sly balloon.
Plus George Santos claiming he's hard at work despite the controversies swirling around him. What he is or isn't doing on the job.
And we're one day away from Super Bowl LVII. We'll take you live for a preview of the big game.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): Live from CNN Center, this is CNN NEWSROOM with Kim Brunhuber.
BRUNHUBER: A U.S. fighter jet shot an unidentified object out of the sky Friday off the coast of Alaska on Joe Biden's order. The Pentagon says there's significant differences between this object and the Chinese spy balloon shot down over the Atlantic last Saturday.
The object Friday had no surveillance equipment and couldn't steer itself. It was flying at 40,000 feet over Alaska's northern coast. Authorities say it posed a threat to civilian aircraft. The debris field has been mapped and officials hope to learn more from the wreckage but they aren't sure what it is or who it belongs to. Here's John Kirby.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ADM. JOHN KIRBY (RET.), COORDINATOR FOR STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS, WHITE HOUSE NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL: The president absolutely was involved in this decision. He ordered it at the recommendation of Pentagon leaders. He wanted it taken down and they did that. They did it using fighter
aircraft assigned to U.S. Northern Command.
We are calling this an object because that's the best description we have right now. We do not know who owns it, whether it's state-owned or corporate owned or privately owned. We just don't know. We don't know.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRUNHUBER: CNN White House reporter Natasha Bertrand has more on this story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NATASHA BERTRAND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: The White House and Pentagon said Friday President Biden ordered a still unidentified object shot down near Alaska on Friday afternoon, marking the second time in under a week that American fighter jets have taken down an object flying over U.S. airspace.
The object flying near Alaska was first detected on Thursday, at which point F-35 fighter jets were sent up to investigate. And it was determined it was flying at around 40,000 feet and did not appear to have the ability to maneuver on its own.
It was essentially floating with the wind and the president determined it did pose a risk to civilian aircraft because of the altitude.
Unlike the Chinese spy balloon, this did not have any visible surveillance equipment on it, according to a U.S. official. It's also unclear still where the object actually came from. But it was heading in a northeasterly direction when it was shot down on Friday. It was also much smaller than the Chinese balloon.
It was about the size of a small car, whereas the balloon's payload alone was about the size of three buses. The so the U.S. has now begun efforts to recover the debris. It will now be taken to an FBI lab for further processing -- Natasha Bertrand, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BRUNHUBER: CNN national security analyst and former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper spoke with us about the object shot down. He discussed what he'd like to know from an intelligence standpoint.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JAMES CLAPPER, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Hopefully there's some indication of the nature of its payload. It would appear, though, that just from its size, that it didn't represent the technology that apparently was represented on the Chinese balloon.
So I do think, if I may, just a broader comment, I do think it would be very useful as this situation evolves if the administration could devise a protocol that could be explained to the Congress and to the public what the ground rules are on when and where and under what conditions we'd shoot one down or those conditions that we would want to observe it for intelligence purposes.
Now speaking truly as an intelligence guy, I was -- the news by those were complaining about it, the Chinese balloon being an intelligence failure, but yet also complaining because we took the time to learn something about it.
[05:05:00]
CLAPPER: And it's not like we can fly over China and observe one of their balloons. So this was an opportunity to gain intelligence. And so I think that may have been a valid argument. All to say I think it would be a good thing if we had a protocol that could be explained, both to the public and especially the Congress, about the ground rules.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(MUSIC PLAYING)
BRUNHUBER: More than 24,000 people are now confirmed dead from the powerful earthquake that devastated Turkiye and Syria on Monday. In Turkiye, emergency crews from around the world have been digging through the rubble for five days now, hoping to find another survivor.
On Friday they rescued a mother and daughter who had been trapped for 107 hours. With each passing minute, hopes of finding more people alive are fading. Many of those who died are being buried in mass graves like this one in Syria.
And those who survived have been left with almost nothing. The World Food Programme says aid is arriving but more than half a million people need help. Nick Paton Walsh is in Turkiye with more on the rescue operations there.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NICK PATON WALSH, CNN INTERNATIONAL SECURITY EDITOR (voice-over): Over 100 hours after the worst quake in nearly 100 years and still there were lights that won't go out.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (from captions): Coming! Pull!
WALSH (voice-over): Naked feet, a reminder this happened in everyone sleep. And this new dawn so welcome. No better way to show you're alive than this smile. The crowds at each site larger, louder in success. Now the number of living buried is smaller.
Timadu's (ph) husband was pulled out moments before her. They don't have to go far to be reminded how so many searches end. The preciousness of each moment of hope is most acute here where military helicopters and ambulances former stream rushing the injured to hospitals in other Turkish cities because so many here are crippled. We see a three-year-old girl conscious. Her two months old sister the same. It is unclear if they know where their mother is. Nobody here does.
WALSH: This just how urgent their work is. Each time they try to take off another ambulance arrives with another injured person who urgently required treatment.
Elsewhere, the olds are rushed on too but also two so tiny, they share a stretcher. And on board must be carried in their arms. They too fly without their parents.
About 15 patients in total this morning. Remember, though, this is how most stories are ending here. Hurried graves in a cemetery dug by hand and cardboard. Even this a relative luxury in a time of nothing.
Two families of four who died in the same building. Across this city though, the task of burying so many also urgently.
Back at the same rubble site, another search has begun. This resident explains its interior.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): Where is the elevator shaft?
WALSH (voice-over): Hope now is for Yeshim's (ph) brother, mother and father, a nurse. She's been here since Tuesday.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): I've been struggling for five days. Everyone has lost hope now and is sending me condolences. Officials told me they'd only find a course.
And now two people have come out alive. We need professional rescuers. The fire brigade quit on us. We found those two just now with construction workers. I brought three body bags, maybe I need them and a graveyard.
WALSH (voice-over): And to dusk, the dig inches carefully forward with no time limit or guarantee it will find anything. The city center swamped in dust and the heavy knowledge, that the longer their patience and struggle, the less likely it is to be rewarded.
WALSH: Now slowly the focus here will shift from trying to get those who are alive from out of the rubble to keeping those alive who are above the rubble and survived the quakes.
That's an exceptionally large challenge for any government. And the city of millions here is in absolute ruins. And a slow deterioration, you begin to feel, of the fabric of normal life.
We got a glimpse of how that might look in the last hours, when a false rumor was started amongst the crowds here that a dam nearby had broken and we're about to be flooded. That caused people to pile into any car they could and just try and drive out as quickly as possible. Of course the roads were jammed and that was impossible. It turned out
to be false information. But shortly afterwards, some local men chased down other local men, who they say were trying to rob an abandoned building.
A sense of tension there that will surely build as the frustration is at desperation, at the absence of the normal things you'd expect in daily life here, built in the freezing, bitter weeks ahead -- Nick Paton Walsh, CNN, Antakya, Turkiye.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BRUNHUBER: That's powerful stories there. CNN's Nada Bashir joins us from Istanbul.
Nada, what's the latest on the rescue and on the race to avert a bigger disaster?
NADA BASHIR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It came as the days go on hope of finding anyone still alive is dwindling and that death toll is only growing higher and higher. This is becoming less of a rescue operation and more of a recovery operation. It's sad to say.
[05:10:00]
BASHIR: President Erdogan says the government has committed all its departments to focusing on that rescue and recovery effort. They have dedicated more than 140,000 people across 10 provinces to support in that effort as well as a huge amount of funding going into that. But those efforts do continue.
We are still hearing those remarkable stories of hope. Three brothers rescued more than 120 hours after the earthquake hit, a significant feat. That's given many hope but hope is dwindling.
As we heard now in Syria, the White Helmets, that have been leading, those volunteers, have been leading on the rescue effort there, that search and rescue effort has now come to an end. They do not believe anyone still trapped could be alive.
Very sad and difficult news for those loved ones and family members hoping, praying, waiting for news that perhaps their loved ones may still be alive. It looks it may now be a recovery effort instead. So some real difficult moments ahead.
Despite that, there's been some moments of hope. This has been a huge effort by volunteers, by international volunteers. Just coming into Turkiye yesterday, there were still crews on our flight, waiting to join in that effort from all across the globe. So this has been a significant international effort but it is turning into a recovery effort now.
BRUNHUBER: Nada Bashir, thank you so much.
Any of those who survived the earthquake are now forced to cope with the sorrow of losing loved ones. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Baby clothes are all that remain of Nassir's (ph) little girl, Ilef (ph). She died cradled in her mother's arms. Her mom is dead, too.
And this is a little note written by his daughter, Hiba (ph), also killed in the earthquake.
"You are my heart," it reads.
And now his heart is broken.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRUNHUBER: Their stories of grief and mourning later this hour in a report by CNN's Salma Abdelaziz.
Still ahead here on CNN NEWSROOM, the FBI searches the home of former U.S. vice president Mike Pence. What they found and where they will go next in the search for classified documents.
Plus controversies keep piling up around George Santos. The latest lie the Republican is accused of telling, next. Stay with us.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[05:15:00]
(MUSIC PLAYING)
BRUNHUBER: Sources tell CNN the FBI is expected to search former vice president Mike Pence's office in Washington in the coming days. That's after investigators searched his Indiana home on Friday and removed several documents, at least one of them marked classified. Paula Reid has more on the story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PAULA REID, CNN SENIOR LEGAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): FBI agents arrived at the Indiana home of former Vice President Mike Pence Friday to search for classified documents.
In a statement released after the search, Pence's team revealed investigators removed one document with classified markings and six additional pages without such markings that were not discovered in the initial review by the vice president's counsel.
MIKE PENCE, FORMER VICE PRESIDENT: Let me be clear, those classified documents should not have been in my personal residence. Mistakes were made and I take full responsibility.
REID: The Justice Department is now reviewing how those documents ended up there especially after he denied taking any such materials. Pence consented to allowing the FBI in his home after his lawyers found a dozen documents marked classified in the residence last month.
PENCE: There'd be no reason to have classified documents, particularly in they were in an unprotected area.
REID: A member of his legal team was present as agents scoured the home, while Pence was on the West Coast visiting family after the arrival of two new grandchildren.
MARC SHORT, PENCE AIDE: The vice president asked for full compliance.
REID: His team publicly touting their cooperation in the search, in contrast to another Justice Department matter as pence now faces a subpoena from special counsel Jack Smith in his criminal investigation into January 6th.
Pence's lawyers have been in negotiations for months as he's a key witness to what was happening inside the White House around the election and eventual Capitol attack.
PENCE: I told the Secret Service I was not leaving the Capitol.
REID: And to Trump's pressure campaign to overturn the election --
DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT: Mike Pence is going to have to come through for us.
REID: And the wrath he endured when he refused.
Mike Pence didn't have the courage to do what should have been done, Trump tweeted as the Capitol was under siege.
PENCE: When I saw those images and when -- when I read a tweet that President Trump issued saying that I lacked courage in that moment, it angered me greatly.
REID: Pence could try to assert privilege over certain conversations with the former president but he'll have a hard time refusing to answer questions about ones he included in his much-publicized memoir.
PENCE: I looked at him and said I guess there are two things we'll never agree on. He looked up and said, what?
And I referred to my role on January 6th. Then I said, never going to stop praying for you.
REID: In the coming days, the Justice Department is also expected to search Pence's D.C. office. Then the Justice Department will need to decide whether to appoint a special counsel to look into this further. But clearly, Pence's team wants to move this along as quickly as possible as he continues to seriously contemplate a presidential run -- Paula Reid, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE) BRUNHUBER: We're learning Donald Trump's legal team turned over more classified materials and a laptop to fellow prosecutors in recent months.
[05:20:00]
BRUNHUBER: Attorneys also returned an empty folder marked classified evening briefing. The Trump team apparently discovered pages with classified markings in December while searching boxes at his Mar-a- Lago resort.
A Trump aide copied those pages onto a thumb drive and the laptop, not realizing they were classified. So those devices were turned over in January.
Embattled House Republican George Santos is accused of telling another lie, this time by a fellow lawmaker. He made claims when talking about the heated exchange with Mitt Romney at the State of the Union address.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. GEORGE SANTOS (R-NY): Senator Sinema, as she was walking by, she said something to the effect of, hang in there, buddy.
I said, thank you, Madam Senator. She was very polite and kindhearted as I learned to see her. She's a good person, unlike Mr. Romney, who thinks he's above it all and is on an almighty white horse, trying to talk down to us on morality.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRUNHUBER: The only problem, Sinema's office insists that never happened, saying, quote, "This is a lie."
Despite the controversies piling up, Santos refuses to resign. Eva McKend reports on his attempt to carry on as if nothing is wrong.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SANTOS: I'm in my office, I'm taking meetings, I'm answering constituent calls.
QUESTION: Why did you list the wrong name of your treasurer -- ?
EVA MCKEND, CNN NATIONAL POLITICS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Embattled freshman Congress man George Santos insisting he's hard at work, amid the daily questions over his lies.
SANTOS: I'm the new -- I'm the new favorite punching bag in America.
MCKEND: But amidst all the scandal, he's trying to play the role of congressman, signing on at least a dozen different bills of Republicans he's trying to forge alliances with, bills dealing with abortion rights, guns, terminating TikTok, repealing the Inflation Reduction Act and congressional term limits. SANTOS: I'm signing on to a litany of bills on the house and we're writing bills out of my office already that are sitting with ledge council. So as everybody must be wondering at home if I'm getting things done. You betcha we're getting things done and we're pretty proud of the work we're putting forward.
MCKEND: While some of his fellow GOP have snubbed him, Santos seems to be working hard to make friends on the Hill with some of the most extreme members of Congress. He's also not shy on the house floor, giving several speeches. One on anti-Semitism.
SANTOS: We must also pay tribute to the liberators who rescued millions of people who nearly fell victim to the Holocaust.
MCKEND: Another noting the birthday of one of his Jewish constituents.
SANTOS: Today, I rise to honor Mr. Christopher Marion Balvin (ph), a constituent, war hero and Holocaust survivor in New York's 3rd Congressional District.
MCKEND: Santos previously lied and said he was Jewish and falsely claimed his grandparents were Holocaust survivors. But every day something new seems to plague him. This week, increasing scrutiny over his claims of charity work with rescued pets.
Santos charged with theft in 2017, accused of writing thousands of dollars of bad checks to dog breeders in Pennsylvania.
He claimed his checkbook was stolen and the charges were ultimately expunged from his record.
And he still faces several obstacles, a House Ethics Committee probe and a federal investigation into his campaign finances. Yet he remains defiant about staying on the job.
SANTOS: The reality is I won by a decisive margin. I had a very expressive, decisive victory.
MCKEND: Eva McKend, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BRUNHUBER: Florida governor Ron DeSantis is getting the upper hand with his bitter feud with Disney. On Friday, the Republican-led state senate approved the bills giving him the power to appoint the board of the so-called Reedy Creek improvement district.
That's the body that gives Disney special powers in the Orlando area, where its theme parks are located. The bill passed in the state house on Thursday and DeSantis is expected to sign it. He's been at loggerheads with Disney since the company said it would try to repeal the so-called don't say gay law.
Still ahead, survivors of the earthquake in Turkiye and Syria desperately need help. We have details on some of the urgent missions to reach them.
Plus a nation long neglected by the international community struck by yet another catastrophe without any means to withstand it. Syrians now face a new and deeper crisis.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[05:25:00]
(MUSIC PLAYING)
BRUNHUBER: Welcome back to all of you watching in the United States, Canada and around the world. This is CNN NEWSROOM.
Want to get back to one of our top stories. The death toll from the powerful earthquake in Turkiye and Syria has risen to more than 24,000 people. In Turkiye, emergency crews continue digging through the rubble, hoping to find another survivor.
On Friday they rescued a mother and daughter trapped for 107 hours. Rescues like these are becoming increasingly rare. Those who survived have lost almost everything. The World Food Programme says aid is urgently needed for more than half a million displaced people.
With response efforts now shifting from search and rescue to recovery, hope of finding survivors is giving way to grieving for the dead. Salma Abdelaziz has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ABDELAZIZ (voice-over): This is what funerals look like in the quake zone, burials en masse. There are just too many bodies. Baby clothes are all that remain of Nassir's (ph) little girl, Ilef (ph). She died cradled in her mother's arms. Her mom is dead, too.
And this is a little note written by his daughter, Hiba (ph), also killed in the earthquake. "You are my heart," it reads.
And now his heart is broken.
Six of his children and his wife killed in an instant. His home lies in ruins.
"We are used to airstrikes, rockets, barrel bombs but this, an act of God," he says.
"I kept calling out my children's names one by one. No one answered."
This a rebel-held area in Syria ravaged by war. Residents here are all too familiar with death. They can endure no more.
In government-controlled areas, there is relatively more assistance. As the crisis entered its fifth day, President Bashar al-Assad toured the affected area drawing criticism for his delayed visit.
[05:30:00]
ABDELAZIZ (voice-over): Aid is coming in from his backers, Iran and Russia, Pakistan and Algeria sending help as well and the U.S. is authorizing aid that would otherwise be prohibited by tough sanctions to flow through here for a period of 180 days.
But help is still limited and anguish is everywhere. Public spaces have been turned into shelters for the hundreds of thousands made homeless.
"I wish we could feel safe, that our children can feel normal," she says.
"No one cares about us."
A nation long neglected, struck by yet another catastrophe without any means to withstand it -- Salma Abdelaziz, CNN, Istanbul.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BRUNHUBER: For more, I want to bring in Syrian American actor Jay Abdo, who's based in the U.S. He's joining us now from Canada.
Thank you for being here with us. It's been so devastating to see the pictures, to hear the stories. You have been following this very closely.
What's hit you the most?
JAY ABDO, ACTOR: Thank you so much for having me and for giving me this window to give a voice for the voiceless. First of all, I would like to thank you a lot. And I would like to express my deepest condolences to those who lost their loved ones in both Turkiye and Syria.
And my warmest wishes for the injured and those affected to heal quickly. Our hearts bleed helplessly in such a devastating catastrophe. This -- some heartwarming rescue successes are seen in Turkiye. But the hope is fading in the northwest of Syria.
The catastrophe on top another, no equipment, no tools, no aid; humanitarian aid is still not reaching to the damaged areas in northwest Syria.
BRUNHUBER: Yes, you talk about sort of the disasters coming on top of one another. That's what makes it even more heartbreaking in Syria, is that this natural disaster has been compounded by this manmade disaster of the war, which is now making it so much harder to help people there.
ABDO: Exactly. The Syrian regime, backed by the international aid, were not provided neutralizing (ph) the international aid that reaches the areas under this control, obstructing the arrival of relief in Syria outside its control.
And closing the borders, the border crossings that allow aid into northwestern Syria. I mean, we're racing against time here. The death toll, as we all know, under rubble, is increasing there. Civilians are not receiving any support, aid or attention.
The international community must act immediately. The international community, the entities, the world must act immediately. There's no time.
BRUNHUBER: Do you feel -- I can feel the passion in your voice there, that something needs to be done. I know you said that the international community hasn't done enough, that Syrians are being forgotten.
But surely the number of logistical challenges, as you talked about, the war as well as the infrastructure that's affecting the roads and so on, too, is really a big barrier in terms of getting the aid that's necessary there.
ABDO: Everything is collapsing. We need rescue teams. People are volunteering. I mean, as I said, the international community must immediately act and find air and land routes for the entry of aid, rescue teams and vehicles, as they usually do in similar catastrophes. Civilians there are (INAUDIBLE) the rubble, in search of their beloved ones.
[05:35:00]
ABDO: (INAUDIBLE) to be heard beneath the rubble. (INAUDIBLE) secondary disasters and (INAUDIBLE) create (INAUDIBLE) conditions compromising their lives (ph).
I mean, listen, earthquakes, disasters happen. But earthquakes, they have no borders.
So why do borders in politics deprive Syrian civilians in the northwest of the country from their human rights to be rescued?
What is the United Nations waiting for?
This is, I'm sorry to say, I am so (INAUDIBLE) that this is an international extermination of millions of civilians.
BRUNHUBER: Yes, it's such a tragedy that politics should be affecting the delivery of aid there. And as you say, so many people are suffering.
I mean, you yourself, like many who left Syria, you have a complex relationship with the country because you feared for your safety. You had to leave the country. You're not alone.
How is the Syrian expatriate and refugee community rallying to help while also dealing with those worries that their donations might end up in the wrong hands? ABDO: This is the comforting, this is the comforting side of the
story, that people and I -- in all catastrophes I find the Syrian people from all over the country come together, heart to heart, hand to hand, shoulder to shoulder, with true feeling, to help their beloved ones.
The people they know, they don't know. And I can hear on social media so many voices, getting together, gathering strength and hope. When you feel abandoned, this is so heavy on the heart, on the mind.
And at the same time, knowing that we're racing against time and it's this feeling, to feel that the effort must be very, very huge, (INAUDIBLE) to put together to help those people and when you know that there's no time to do it.
BRUNHUBER: Yes. Yes, the need is just so great. And we appreciate having your voice on this horrible tragedy. Jay Abdo, thank you so much for talking to us. Really appreciate it.
ABDO: Thank you so much.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BRUNHUBER: If you want to help the victims of the earthquake, you can go to cnn.com/impact. And you can find ways to donate there.
A fresh assault from Russian trying to bring Ukraine's power grid to its knees. How Moscow is escalating the war nearly a year to the day since it began.
Plus the new Brazilian president gives an exclusive interview to Christiane Amanpour. We'll see what he says about his meeting with President Biden and the threats to democracy. Stay with us.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[05:40:00]
(MUSIC PLAYING)
BRUNHUBER: Air raid sirens went off across Ukraine again Friday night. Officials reported explosions in the central city of Dnipro. This after a barrage of Russian strikes on the energy grid across Ukraine earlier in the day.
Russia launched more than 100 missiles, rockets and drones knocking off a significant part of Ukraine's generating capacity. But the vast majority of Ukrainians still have power, water and heat.
Meanwhile Ukraine's air defenses are about to get more weapons to help fight back. Lithuania is sending dozens of anti-aircraft guns that can shoot down both drones and warplanes.
And further west, some military arrived in Germany on its way to Ukraine. The shipment includes Bradley armored vehicles and air defenses, which were promised to Kyiv in January.
The White House has announced President Biden will travel to Poland this month as the war in Ukraine enters a second year. Sam Kiley has more from Eastern Ukraine, where Russian forces are ramping up attacks.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SAM KILEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Clearly there's a great deal of interest in a visit of the U.S. president to Poland to mark the anniversary on February 24th of the latest Russian invasion of Ukraine.
But the reality on the ground is that Ukrainians are grappling with another Russian offensive. Now they believe that the much vaunted spring offensive has come early, effectively with very intensive attacks by professional military personnel from the Russian airborne divisions in Kreminna, in the eastern part of the country.
And also renewed activity around the city or the town of Bakhmut. That's a town that's been very, very bloody focus of the Russian efforts, with these wave upon wave upon wave of attacks by conscripts and volunteers from the Wagner mercenary group being thrown into a battle that they simply are not going to survive.
And winning ground incrementally at gigantic human costs. Now on the ground, fighters on the Ukrainian side are saying they're seeing a more professional effort being thrown into that.
They believe if you combine that with the overnight bombardment with cruise missiles, with the Shahed drones that have been put in by Iran, more attacks against the national infrastructure, particularly the energy infrastructure of the country, certainly the Ukrainian perspective is that the latest Russian offensive has begun.
So what they would like to hear from a Biden administration before he gets to Poland but certainly by the time he gets to Poland is clearance to supply them with the long range missiles and the jets they say they so badly need to defend themselves.
Firstly and secondly to get on the front foot and rid their country of the Russian invaders -- Sam Kiley, CNN, Eastern Ukraine.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BRUNHUBER: President Biden is expected to arrive in Poland February 20th, four days before the one-year mark since Russia's invasion. Biden will meet with his Polish counterpart and other leaders from the region. The White House says he'll make it clear that the allied support for Ukraine won't dry up.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KIRBY: He wants to make sure that he's sending that strong message, not only of the United States' resolve but the international community resolve. [05:45:00]
KIRBY: And to make clear to the Ukrainian people, most particularly, that the United States is going to continue to stand by them going forward. We know the next weeks and months are going to be difficult and critical.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRUNHUBER: President Biden has accepted an invitation to visit Brazil. The announcement comes after he met with Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva at the White House.
Friday's talks largely focused on how to protect democracy. Both leaders saw government buildings stormed by far right protesters in the aftermath of their elections.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Both our nations, strong democracies, have been tested of late, very much tested. Our institutions are put in jeopardy.
LULA DA SILVA, BRAZILIAN PRESIDENT: (Speaking foreign language).
BIDEN: Both the United States and Brazil, democracy prevailed.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRUNHUBER: And President Lula da Silva sat down with Christiane Amanpour for an exclusive interview. Here's what he told her about the many threats to democracy.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: President Biden was among the first world leaders to congratulate you on your election victory and to condemn the uprising on January the 8th. You both have a lot in common protecting democracy.
Is that the main central thrust of your meeting here?
DA SILVA (through translator): Well, I believe that to defend democracy is an obligation of all democrats in the world.
I would never could imagine that it could happen in the U.S. and North America, the invasion of the capital, as I could -- never could have imagined that in Brazil, after democratic procession elections, would -- could have an invasion of the Supreme Court and the presidential palace.
And so, this means that you have extreme Right running around the world, an extreme Right that is very nervous and that uses fake news as if it was a tool to develop politics and talk to people -- communicate to people. And we have to destroy, you know, this narrative that the use against the Democrats. And I should say that yesterday, that I want to congratulate President Biden for his excellent speech at the State of the Union at the national Congress. That it was a very, very interesting speech. It looks like he was talking to Brazil because, in Brazil, the same thing that happened is the same thing that's going on in the U.S. now.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRUNHUBER: The climate crisis was also high on the agenda at Friday's talks. President Lula da Silva is vowing to protect the Amazon rain forest in advanced efforts to curb greenhouse emissions.
Still ahead, we're one day away from the gridiron drama Super Bowl LVII. We'll take you to Arizona for a preview next. Stay with us.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[05:50:00]
(MUSIC PLAYING)
(SPORTS)
[05:55:00]
(SPORTS)
BRUNHUBER: That wraps this hour of CNN NEWSROOM. You can follow me on Twitter. "CNN THIS MORNING" is next.
