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Biden Makes Surprise Trip To Ukraine As War Nears One-Year Mark; Former President Carter Receiving Hospice Care At Home. Aired 2- 2:30p ET

Aired February 20, 2023 - 14:00   ET

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

[14:00:00]

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BIANNA GOLODRYGA, CNN ANCHOR: Hello everyone, I'm Bianna Golodryga. Welcome to CNN NEWSROOM.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Victor Blackwell. Good to be with you.

President Biden is heading to Poland right now after making a surprise and historic visit to Ukraine. He arrived in Kyiv this morning and greeted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and First Lady Olena Zelenska. Ukraine is a war zone where the U.S. military has no presence but Biden said that he had to go to show the Ukrainian people America's unwavering support.

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BLACKWELL: You can hear them there. Those are the air raid sirens as the two presidents walked the Capitol streets.

GOLODRYGA: They laid a wreath outside St. Michael's monastery to honor fallen Ukrainian soldiers. The one-year anniversary of Russia's invasion is just days away. And wearing a tie with the colors of Ukraine's flag, President Biden pledged an additional half a billion dollars in aid and promise that the U.S. will never abandon its ally.

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JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: One year later, Kyiv stands and Ukraine stands, democracy stands. The Americans stand with you. And the world stands with you. It's worth fighting for, for as long as it takes. And that's how long we're going to be with you, Mr. President, for as long as it takes.

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GOLODRYGA: CNN chief White House correspondent Phil Mattingly joins us now from Warsaw, Poland. And CNN SENIOR national correspondent Alex Marquardt is in Kyiv. So, Phil, we've heard the president say time and time again that the United States will be at Ukraine's side for as long as it takes. It does make a huge difference, though to say that from Washington, DC as opposed to there in Kyiv at Moscow's border.

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes. And those air raid sirens we heard as the two presidents walked the streets of Kyiv serving as a vivid representation of a trip that was not just symbolic, but also carried significant risks.

And yet the president was determined and told his staff as much to make this trip to mark the one year since Russia's invasion. I think it underscores the reality of a moment where U.S. officials look back at the year and see the resiliency of the Ukrainian people, the resilience of Ukrainian forces, and perhaps most importantly, in minds of U.S. officials, the durability of a western U.S.-led alliance that has stuck together despite the length of this conflict.

The president also made clear he wanted to send a message not just to that alliance, not just to the American people or Ukrainian people, but also to President Vladimir Putin. Take a listen.

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BIDEN: Putin thought Ukraine was weak and the West was divided. As you know, Mr. President, I said to you at the beginning, he's counting on us not sticking together. He thought he could outlast us. I don't think he's thinking that right now.

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MATTINGLY: I guess that -- I think it's an important point because while the durability of the entire coalition certainly, the unflinching U.S. support has been a cornerstone of the last 361 plus days of this conflict, the realities are there are significant cross- cutting pressures that U.S. officials believe President Putin is counting on to start to fracture that alliance in the weeks and months ahead, particularly as Russia gears up for a new offensive.

The president's visit trying to underscore the fact that that coalition will stick together, that U.S. support will continue to lead the way and it's not going anywhere anytime soon even though U.S. officials are very clear they don't see an endgame right now to this conflict. They only see President Putin likely ramping things up, guys.

BLACKWELL: Yes. Alex, Phil outlined the several audiences for this visit. We talked about the Ukrainian president. What about the Ukrainian people? What are they saying about this visit?

ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, Victor and Bianna, you can imagine that if security were not a concern, if this were not a country at war, that Biden would have been greeted by loud crowds thanking him for all the U.S. support over the past few years -- last year. People lining the streets are coming out for a speech but that is, of course not the case. This is the capital of a country that is very much at war.

And because of this extraordinary secrecy, and the way that this trip was planned and executed, there was, of course, no advanced warning. We learned about it that people on the streets of Kyiv have learned about it when President Biden and President Zelenskyy literally walked across the square right behind me down at that church at St. Michael's. And so there was an incredible surprise.

Most residents of Kyiv learned about this on TV, on the radio, on social media. So, when we went out and asked people for their reaction, there was that surprise, but of course, that quickly gave way to thanks to a general sense of happiness that President Biden had come here in this moment.

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This moment, this week, that is marking the first anniversary of this invasion of Ukraine, that he came here to show his -- the U.S. support not just in the past year but going forward. And as some people told us, reminding the world that Ukraine is fighting against Russia every day. Here's a little bit more of what they had to tell us.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (Speaking in a foreign language)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I wanted to see him in person. I don't know what else to say. I'm happy.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Speaking in a foreign language)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is support for us and a message for the Russians that this issue must be resolved, and Ukraine must win. We hope that this visit will speed up the events. I am in a good mood. This is a sort of prize that shock everyone.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He showed that he's just not afraid to be killed by some striker -- (INAUDIBLE) -- airstrike.

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MARQUARDT: There are several people told us that the real point here, the real goal here is victory, and they're hoping that U.S. support will lead to that. So, of course, like their leaders, they are asking for more and better weapons. Often these are weapons that the U.S. has not yet committed.

But to that last point, we should note that this is a city that is relatively back to normal. People are out and about. We're out -- we're able to go out into the streets and talk to them. But at the same time, you really do feel that this is still part of the war, there was that air raid siren as the presidents cross that square.

And we've seen in the past when the Secretary General of the United Nations left, Russia fired missiles into Kyiv, when the CIA director was here just a couple of weeks ago, he spent hours in a bunker. And that is a major reason we understand that the White House gave the Kremlin a heads-up that while they may target Kyiv in the past that today was not the day to do it. Bianna and Victor. GOLODRYGA: Yes, air raid sirens really have become the norm in the capitol there. Phil, the president now headed to Poland from Ukraine. What more can we expect to see from that visit? I know that he's planning to meet with the Bucharest Nine, those are the Central and Eastern European countries that join NATO after the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

MATTINGLY: Yes, really the tip of the spear, nine countries that probably have the most at risk at this moment in time. It's been a critical coalition for the White House over the course of this process. The president has made a point of maintaining close contact with them over the course of the last year.

The president will also sit down in a bilateral meeting with President Duda to underscore the respect, the thanks that the U.S. has for Poland's efforts, not just in defense assistance, but also with the 1.5 million refugees that have crossed the border into Poland that are receiving care here. But the president's remarks tomorrow are being billed as very high stakes, very critical.

Again, mostly kind of following up on what he did today in Kyiv before we knew he was going to Ukraine, those remarks were kind of the cornerstone of this trip.

But those remarks are designed not unlike his remarks, the same place in Poland in March of last year to underscore the stakes, not just for Ukraine, but -- not just for the Western coalition, but for democracy writ large and also the scale of the effort that's going to need to go into this in the months and perhaps years ahead, guys.

BLACKWELL: Phil Mattingly for us there in Poland, and Alex Marquardt in Ukraine, thank you very much.

Joining us now, Evelyn Farkas. She's the former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Russia, Ukraine, and Eurasia. She's also the executive director of the McCain Institute. And also with us, retired U.S. Army Major Mike Lyons. I have the let me start with you.

The White House notified the Kremlin of this visit the administration says for de-escalation purposes, is this visit especially exculpatory or incendiary any more than the billions of dollars of lethal aid that the U.S. has supplied to Ukraine?

EVELYN FARKAS, FORMER DEPUTY ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF DEFENSE FOR RUSSIA, UKRAINE & EURASIA: No. I mean, Victor, this is, you know, just essentially underlining to the Russians and, of course, the world that the United States remains with Ukraine, and, frankly, to the Russian people that Putin is losing. But I don't think it's escalatory. I think that they just wanted to make sure the Russians didn't inadvertently strike Kyiv and then create an escalatory situation.

GOLODRYGA: Of course, Vladimir Putin, in his speech tomorrow will likely use this as another way to say that the United States is at war with Russia as well, that it's not just Ukraine Russia is fighting, but it is the West collectively. Major, we heard the president say that he'd be announcing another $500 million in military aid for the United States. What wasn't mentioned was whether that aid would include long-range missiles. We haven't seen that provided yet. Do you believe that that will come in the weeks and months ahead? Clearly, that's what Ukraine wants.

MAJ. MIKE LYONS (RET), U.S. ARMY: Yes, that would be a tipping point for the Ukraine military to get those long-range weapons ATACMS go. It would allow Ukraine to target well into Russia and into some areas that they can't reach right now, the HIMARS and other artillery rounds. I don't think that you're going to see them get that in the coming months.

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I think that is very escalatory. I believe that we continue to pour these western weapons in, but we still have to be careful on how they are managed and used. We still don't have tanks there, for example.

There -- you know, we've committed over 350 tanks there, and the reports are there only about 50 will show up in April. So, I -- you know, it's a stalemate. They're doing incredible work. But the bottom line is, I think that becomes very escalatory.

BLACKWELL: So, let me ask you. If this half billion dollars of lethal aid, as more artillery, more Javelins, more Howitzers, is more of the same enough to get the upper hand to get some momentum to sustain a successful counter-offensive in the spring, Major.

LYONS: Yes. I don't think that Ukraine has the manpower to do it. We can give them divisions worth of equipment from an army perspective but they still don't have the manpower to do it. Russia still has numbers. They still have mass with regard to people they could throw at this.

The best they could do right now is to hold off and keep and defend well, the areas they're defending. They have the advantage of being on their home soil. They can -- they use terrain, they've used rivers, in order to block certain passages.

But until the Ukraine military can threaten Crimea can they can launch some kind of focus on offensive. They can't -- they can't do an offensive in both the east and to the south. I think they've got to decide whether they're going to do that.

And I think they're waiting on making sure they have potential manpower, but they're still likely three to six to even nine months away of any kind of counter-offensive just from a manpower perspective.

GOLODRYGA: Evelyn, it's interesting tomorrow, to put into perspective, we're going to have two presidents, we're going to have President Biden giving a speech in Poland and we're going to have Russian President Vladimir Putin giving a speech to the public there in Russia. Already, his visit to Ukraine has been all over the Russian airwaves.

We know that that is highly censored, highly controlled. So, they clearly want Russians to see this visit and interpret it the way Vladimir Putin would like it to be interpreted. What will you be looking for in his speech tomorrow?

FARKAS: Bianna, I think that you're right. He's going to try to paint this as a war between the West and Russia or more directly the United States and Russia, and that the Ukrainians are being used as pawns by us.

I think I will look for you know, anything that he says about what types of territory he wants to control or thinks he controls any kind of hint about new offensive, there's a lot of -- there's a big question mark about whether they already started the offensive that was coming. So, if he -- if he says that there's something more coming anything where he talks about the brothers in Belarus, of course, you know.

I think Putin usually does actually telegraph pretty clearly in his speeches what his intent is. If I could just go really quickly back, though, to the Major's comments because I disagree. I do believe that Ukraine can win -- Ukraine can take the offensive and take back the territory, specifically in the Donbass area if we give them the tanks, which are on the way, in addition to that, if we provide them with fighter aircraft.

If they have air cover, their troops can go head-to-head with the Russians break through their lines, and actually push them out. In addition to that, I don't think that the longer-range artillery is necessarily escalatory. So, I know we don't have a lot of time to go into it but I think there is another perspective here.

BLACKWELL: Major?

LYONS: Yes, it comes down to people.

BLACKWELL: Yes.

LYONS: And in fact, the bottom line is the Russians can throw just a whole lot more into this. You can't give the Ukraine military F-16s teams and think they're going to use them right away. It's going to take a year for them to have any kind of effectiveness. They don't have the pilots, let's start training the pilots now if we're going to go that route. It's just not -- it's not a video game. And I think that's a --

FARKAS: Ad I think --

LYONS: -- there's no question that Ukraine has the resistance and a will to have to fight and win. But at the end of the day, Russia still has much more equipment there. They could go on a static defense.

They -- Ukraine military would need three times the amounts of Russians that would do if the Russians decide to put up defenses in the Donbass region and then -- and then that the hamburger machine is on the other side, then the Ukraine military is being thrown into it. So, it is a stalemate. And that's where we sit right now. I don't -- I don't think either side can go on any offensive.

BLACKWELL: Evelyn, 15 seconds.

FARKAS: I don't think it's a numbers game. The Ukrainians have fewer forces, yes. But they are trained. They can maneuver. They know what they're doing. They're hardened. It's very different from what you have on the Russian side.

GOLODRYGA: Yes, the Russians may have a quantitative advantage but it doesn't look like they have a qualitative advantage with their trained military soldiers at this point. Evelyn Farkas and Major Mike Lyons, thank you so much.

FARKAS: Thanks.

BLACKWELL: Let's go to Turkey now. A magnitude 6.3 aftershock has hit the already devastated region. We will take you there.

GOLODRYGA: And the longest living president in U.S. history. Jimmy Carter is now receiving hospice care at his home in Georgia. What we're learning about his condition? That's next.

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GOLODRYGA: Former President Jimmy Carter is resting at his home in Plains, Georgia choosing to begin hospice end-of-life care.

BLACKWELL: The Carter Center says the 98-year-old made the decision after a series of short hospital stays. He's faced a number of health incidents recently including beating brain cancer back in 2015. CNN's Eva McKend is live in Plains, Georgia, what do we know about the care the former President is receiving?

EVA MCKEND, CNN NATIONAL POLITICS REPORTER: Well, Victor and Bianna, we know that he has opted for this end-of-life care here in his hometown. And according to his grandson, he is surrounded by love and family. But he not only enjoys the love and the family -- the love and support of his family, it's really this entire community here in Plains, Georgia.

As we speak to people, they truly revere him. They are still amazed decades later about the way in which this one-time peanut farmer ascended to the presidency. There's a great little restaurant just down the block here, a southern restaurant called Bonita's. Take a listen to what the owner of that restaurant told us.

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BONITA HIGHTOWER, OWNER, BONITA'S RESTAURANT, PLAINE, GEORGIA: We wanted to go hear him because he was doing the Sunday school classes. And so, we did. We got a real early and the people -- the church was already packed. So, we had to go into overflow.

And I said, oh, well, we got to go into overflow. But guess what? There he was teaching from the overflow. So, I have first-hand looking right in its face you know, as he taught the Sunday school class, so that was a great experience for my children who are all grown now.

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MCKEND: So, you hear the excitement there from Bonita. That's because up until fairly recently, the former president was still teaching Sunday school classes in this small town of just a few hundred people. And that was an opportunity for the different residents here to listen and to hear from him.

You know, something that we have also heard time and time again is this community described as believers that faith is so important to the Carters and many of the folks here. And, Victor, Bianna, it is their faith that is getting them through this difficult time.

GOLODRYGA: Yes. Hearing from Bonita is just an example of how much respect the community there has for him and for the country, I would say on a bipartisan level --

BLACKWELL: Yes.

GOLODRYGA: -- or the former president. Eva McKend, thank you.

Well, Dr. Megan Ranney is the Deputy Dean of Public Health at Brown University and a professor of Emergency Medicine. Megan, great to see you. So, obviously, this is a former president, so what applies to him is not what typically applies to the general public. But when does one typically become eligible for hospice care?

MEGAN RANNEY, EMERGENCY PHYSICIAN: Yes, this is a great question. The -- there's a lot of misconceptions about hospice care among Americans. The truth is that you can be eligible for hospice care if you and your doctor judge that you have most likely six months or less to live and if you decide that you no longer want to pursue curative treatments.

So, in other words, you're no longer looking to get rid of the disease but rather to manage your symptoms to make sure you have the maximum quality of life to maximize your time at home and doing the things that you most care about.

Only about half of the people who are eligible for hospice in this country actually access it. It's often because they don't know that they're eligible because they have misconceptions because they think that going home to hospice means that you're giving up, that's not at all true, or sometimes it is because of lack of access.

And that is where President Carter probably has access to more services than the rest of us. But there are hospice services across the country that sometimes are underutilized, unfortunately.

BLACKWELL: So, is it exclusively or primarily pain management? RANNEY: It's a great question, Victor. It is not just about pain management. That is certainly part of it. And it is a major focus for many people in hospice, making sure that they are not suffering pain and that they are comfortable.

But it might also be about managing other symptoms. Things like shortness of breath. Things like depression. Sometimes there's physical therapy or occupational therapy to help someone be as functional as possible. Sometimes it's about bringing in social workers to help with that emotional side of end of life and to help the family process and manage as well.

GOLODRYGA: We don't know the exact status of his health right now but could this also be a logistical decision too? I mean, he's 98 years old, his wife, Rosalynn is 95 years old, it can't be easy to have to go back and forth to hospital for any sort of treatment that he's receiving.

RANNEY: As an emergency physician, I too often see people hold on to hope of cure long after that hope is actually gone. That trip back and forth from home to the emergency department or to chemo or to other types of supposed curative treatment is tough on the body, it's also tough on the family, and it's an absolutely lovely thing when families are able to enter hospice care with enough time to actually spend those last weeks or months at home surrounded by loved ones.

So, I hope that was part of their decision. I wish it were part of the decision for many folks across the country who deserves to have the support of hospice services and other palliative services in those last months of life.

BLACKWELL: Dr. Ranney, let me ask you about John Fetterman, Pennsylvania Democratic senator who is receiving inpatient care for a clinical depression. We've learned that he will likely be receiving that inpatient care for several weeks. Is there a direct correlation between the length of stay and the severity of the Depression, or is that a false assumption?

RANNEY: There can be. My suspicion with Senator Fetterman is that it's a combination of things. You know, we know that people who have had a stroke or other acute medical illnesses have higher rates of depression than the average person.

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We also know that folks like Senator Fetterman who had mental health problems earlier are at higher risk of a recurrence of depression. So, it may be that his old treatments aren't working and it takes a few weeks to know if a medication is going to work or not so that in and of itself might explain the amount of time that they're expecting him to be in the hospital.

It might also be about talk therapy or about other types of treatments that we offer people with severe depression. So, it might be about the severity or it might just reflect the complexity of his own personal case. BLACKWELL: Dr. Megan Ranney, thank you so much.

GOLODRYGA: Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is speaking in New York today, sparking more speculation over a possible presidential run. Up next. Why some conservatives are concerned over his use of government power?

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