Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Newsroom
CNN International: Top Intelligence Officials Testify On Worldwide Threats; Official: U.S. Prepared "Rigorously" For Potential Russian Nuclear Strike In Ukraine In Late 2022; Today: Blinken In Jamaica For Emergency Meeting On Haiti; Biden Sharpens Health Care Contrast With Trump In New Hampshire Visit; Ukrainian Oscar Winner Condemns Russia Invasion; U.S. Evacuates Non-Essential Personnel From Embassy In Haiti; Biden Sharpens Health Care Contrast With Trump In N.H. Visit. Aired 3-4p ET
Aired March 11, 2024 - 15:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[15:00:43]
JIM SCIUTTO, CNN INTERNATIONAL HOST: Good afternoon. Thanks so much for joining me today on CNNI and CNN Max. I'm Jim Sciutto in Washington.
And let's get right to the news.
Once a year, America's top intelligence officials testified before the U.S. Senate about what they see as the greatest foreign and domestic threats to U.S. national security, and the security of its allies. That day is today. And the hearing just getting underway on Capitol Hill briefing lawmakers, as you can see, there, the director of national intelligence also briefing the heads of the CIA, FBI, NSA, and more.
This is Avril Haines, director of national intelligence, giving her opening statement.
Let's listen.
AVRIL HAINES, DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE: You're putting unprecedented burdens on the institutions and the relationships that the United States relies on to manage such challenges. And perhaps more than ever frankly, highlight the need for sustained U.S. leadership to uphold the rules-based order.
And I'll just touch on these three categories of challenges, starting with strategic competition in China, in an effort to provide some context and highlight some of the intersections. President Xi continues to envision China as a leading power on the world stage. And Chinese leaders believe it is essential to project power globally in order to be able to resist U.S. pressure. For they are convinced that the United States will not tolerate a powerful China.
Nevertheless, the PRC seeks to ensure China can maintain positive ties to the United States and will likely continue to do so this year as they see stability in our relationship is important to their capacity to attract foreign direct investment. Boosting the domestic economy is a fundamental priority for President Xi. Yet he appears to be doubling down on a long-term growth strategy that will deepen public and investor pessimism over the near term.
With youth unemployment around 14.9 percent, no major stimulus aimed at consumption, forthcoming massive local debts and a property market contraction, 2024 is likely to be in other difficult year for China's economy, all against the backdrop of an aging and shrinking population and slowing economic growth. And President Xi is counting on China's investments in technologies such as advanced manufacturing and robotics, artificial intelligence, high performance computing to drive productivity gains and spur future growth.
Yet, he is increasingly concerned about the United States' ability to interfere with Chinas technological goals. Consequently, in an effort to protect and promote China's capacity to compete technologically, which President Xi views as fundamental to his long-term growth strategy, PRC leaders modified their approach to economic retaliation against the United States over the last year, and posing at least some tangible costs on U.S. firms, even as they continue to moderate such actions to avoid domestic costs.
In Chinese leadership is furthermore, pursuing a strategy to boost China's indigenous innovation and technology logical self-reliance, expand their efforts to acquire, steal or compel the production of intellectual property and capabilities from others, including the United States and continue to engage in coercive behavior to control critical global supply chains of relevance.
In the meantime, President Xi's emphasis on control and central oversight is unlikely to solve the challenges posed by China's economic and endemic corruption, demographic decline, and structural economic constraints. And over the coming year, tension between these challenges and China's aspirations for greater geopolitical power will probably become all the more apparent. Given its ambitions, Beijing will continue to use its military forces to intimidate its neighbors and to shape the region's actions in accordance with the PRC's priorities.
We expect the PLA will feel more advanced platforms, deploy new technologies, and grow more competent in joint operations with a particular focus on Taiwan and the western Pacific. And the role intended for Chinas growing nuclear forces and cyber capabilities in this effort and the ultimate intent behind unprecedented growth in these areas remain a priority for us in the I.C. and they are not unrelated to actions of Russia.
President Putin's war of aggression against Ukraine continues unabated.
[15:05:04]
Ukraine's retreat from Avdiivka and their struggle to stave off further territorial losses in the past few weeks have exposed the erosion of Ukraine's military capabilities with the declining availability of external military aid. The assistance that is contemplated in the supplemental is absolutely critical to Ukraine's defense right now. And without that assistance, it is hard to imagine how Ukraine will be able to maintain the extremely hard-fought advances it has made against the Russians, especially given the sustained surge in Russian ammunition production and purchases from North Korea and Iran.
And meanwhile, President Putin is increasing defense spending in Russia, reversing his longstanding reluctance to devote a high percentage of GDP to the military, as he looks to rebuild. In many ways, this has prompted by the fact that Russia has paid an enormous price for the war in Ukraine, not only has Russia suffered more military losses that in any time since World War II, roughly 300,000 casualties and thousands of tanks and armored combat vehicles, setting them back years. It is also precipitated Finland and Sweden's memory membership in NATO, which Putin believes requires an expansion of Russia's ground forces.
Putin continues to judge the time is on his side, and almost certainly assumes that a larger, better equipped military will also serve the purpose of driving that point home to Western audiences. Such messaging is important because Putin strategic goals remain unchanged. He continues to see NATO enlargement and western support to Ukraine as reinforcing his long-held belief that the United States and Europe seek to restrict Russian power and undermine him.
And, of course, in the meantime, Russia continues to modernize and fortify its nuclear weapons capabilities, even, though, it maintains the largest and most diverse nuclear weapons stockpile. We remain concerned that Moscow will put it risk longstanding global norms against the use of asymmetric or strategically de-stabilizing weapons, including in space and in the cyber domain. Another critical intersection we are monitoring is the relationship is a vice chairman noted between government of Russia, China, North Korea, and Iran, which is evolving as these four countries expand collaboration through a web of bilateral and in some cases, trilateral arrangements.
This growing cooperation and willingness to exchange aid and military economic, political, and intelligence matters enhances their individual capabilities. It enables them to Cooperate on competitive actions, assist them to further undermine the rules-based order and gives them each some insulation from external international pressure.
Nevertheless, we assess these relationships will remain far short of formal alliances, or a multilateral axis. Parochial interests, desire to avoid entanglements and wariness of harm and the instability from each others actions will likely limit their cooperation and ensure it advances incrementally, absent direct conflict between one of these countries in the United States.
And nevertheless, the power dynamics are shifting among them. And this is creating new challenges. In particular, Russia's need for support in the context of Ukraine has forced it to grant some long-sought concessions to China and North Korea, and Iran, with the potential to undermine, among other things, long-held non-proliferation norms.
And as I noted in the beginning, intensifying transnational challenges are intersecting with these more traditional threats. For example, with the advent of generative A.I., states and non-state actors who are interested in conducting foreign malign influence operations no longer need to master a language to create potentially believable false content. The threat of malign actors exploiting these tools and technologies to undercut U.S. interests and democracy is particularly potent as voters go to the poll in more than 60 elections around the globe this year as the chairman noted.
We have also seen a massive increase in the number of ransomware attacks globally, which went up roughly 74 percent in 2023 from what it was in 2022. And U.S. entities were the most heavily targeted, many of these are conducted by non-state actors with the Russia-based cyber criminal group LockBit remaining the most popular ransomware as a service provider. LockBit was responsible for nearly a quarter of all claimed attacks worldwide leading to a joint effort by 11 countries to seize its resources and take down its online domains.
Transnational criminal organizations and human smuggling operations increasingly exploit migrants through extortion, kidnapping, and human trafficking. And in particular, the threat from illicit drugs remains at historic levels with Mexican transnational criminal organization supplying and moving large amounts of synthetic opioids, such as fentanyl into the United States. More than 100,000 Americans have died from drug related overdoses during the past year. And most of those deaths have been attributed to illicit fentanyl.
[15:10:00]
And as such, the threat from fentanyl and other synthetic drugs to the health and welfare of everyday Americans remains a top priority for the intelligence community. In the third category, we have multiple regional conflicts with far-reaching implications, perhaps nowhere more obviously than in the Middle East. This crisis in Gaza is a stark example of how regional developments have the potential for broader and even global implications.
Now, having lasted for more than five months, the Gaza conflict has roiled the Middle East with renewed instability, presenting new security paradigms and humanitarian challenges while pulling in a range of actors. The conflict has prompted new dynamics, even as it has entrenched old ones. We continue to assess that Hezbollah and Iran do not want to cause an escalation of the conflict that pulls us or them into a full-out war. Yet the Houthis entered the war and were willing to do so without Iran, acting first, becoming one of the most aggressive actors in the conflict. And the Iranian maligned militia groups in Iraq and Syria that have been attacking our forces and had been more focused on the United States and Israel using the conflict as an opportunity to pursue their own agenda.
Moreover, the crisis has galvanized violence by a range of actors around the world. And while it is too early to tell, it is likely that the Gaza conflict will have a generational impact on terrorism. Both al-Qaeda and ISIS, inspired by Hamas have directed supporters to conduct attacks against Israeli and us interests, and we have seen how it is inspiring during individuals to conduct acts of antisemitism and Islamophobic terror worldwide. In this third category of regional and localized conflicts, we have
many more we might discuss, including Haiti and Sudan and what is happening in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. And the list goes on.
And this finally brings me to 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which will expire on April 19th without congressional action. The intelligence gathered pursuant to section 702 was essential in preparing this annual threat assessment. And he is absolutely fundamental to every aspect of our work, as I know you know. 702 provides unique insights into foreign intelligence targets such as foreign adversaries, terrorist organizations, and being Hamas. Weapons proliferators, spies, malicious cyber actors, and fentanyl traffickers. And he does so at a speed and reliability that we simply cannot replace with any other authority.
And as Congress pursues this reauthorization, we understand there will be reforms and we support those that bolster the compliance and oversight regimes in place while preserving the operational agility that is vital to keeping the nation safe.
Thank you for your patience and we look forward to your questions
SEN. MARK WARNER (D-VA): Thank you, Director Haines.
Let me go --
SCIUTTO: We've been listening to the director of national intelligence, U.S. director of national intelligence or DNI, Avril Haines, there, giving her opening statement during Senate testimony on worldwide threats. This is an annual event by top U.S. intelligence officials where they outlined the greatest threats to security of the United States and its allies around the world.
A few highlights there. She says without continued U.S. military assistance, in her words, it's hard to imagine how Ukraine can maintain its defense going forward. She also spoke a great deal about the threat from Russia and China -- China to U.S. interests and increasing links between not just Russia and China, but other middle powers led by North Korea and Iran.
Joining me now to discuss, CNN global affairs analyst Kim Dozier, and CNN national security analyst and also "New York Times" correspondent -- national security correspondent, David Sanger.
Good to have you all here.
David, as you and I were sitting here watching together, our ears perked up to that moment when she spoke, Avril Haines, about that growing on, if you know, quite what to call it an alliance, but certainly cooperative body of Russia, China, North Korean and Iran.
DAVID SANGER, CNN POLITICAL & NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: That's right, Jim. And I noted two things about this. First of all, is last year, you didn't hear much on this topic almost none. And last year, in fact, I remember asking President Biden at a news conference whether or not there was into his mind a worrying link between Russia and China, and in this realm of cooperation. And he said no, I didn't really think those two could get -- to get together.
SCIUTTO: Yeah.
SANGER: What you've now heard is the administration moving firmly in the camp, that Russia, China, North Korea, and Iran are serving each others interests, not in a formal alliance but then she he -- she went on to say, this has forced Russia because of these interests to change some of their behavior, including a nonproliferation -- SCIUTTO: Yeah.
SANGER: -- which seems to suggest some kind of help to the nuclear programs of Iran and North Korea.
SCIUTTO: Yes, she said Russia has had to make long sought concessions. That sounds to me like an Iran or North Korea seeking missile technology.
SANGER: Or worse.
SCIUTTO: Nuclear technology.
SANGER: I mean, nuclear technology, or some combination of cyber and nuclear, you know, space-based kind of thing.
[15:15:08]
SCIUTTO: And that is alarming because of course it spreads those capabilities around.
SANGER: That's right.
SCIUTTO: More actors means greater chance of perhaps their use or escalation.
To you, if I can, Kimberly Dozier, I want to play the moment when the DNI Avril Haines referenced the ongoing invasion of Ukraine by Russia, and the key, the impact of continued delays in U.S. military assistance.
Have a listen
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HAINES: The assistance that is contemplated in the supplemental is absolutely critical to Ukraine's defense right now and without that assistance, it is hard to imagine how Ukraine will be able to maintain the extremely hard-fought advances it has made against the Russians, especially given the sustained surge in Russian ammunition production and purchases from North Korea and Iran.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCIUTTO: It's a notable moment. She's saying there, Kim, that without us assistance, at least increases the chances of Ukraine losing. But perhaps pushes them towards losing.
KIM DOZIER, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Now, she is publicly acknowledging that Russia has cured its supply lines, military supplies from its axis of the same (AUDIO GAP). While Ukraine is facing challenges from Europe, uncertainty from the U.S., and on the front line, they are actually losing territory.
Now we have the top U.S. intelligence officials saying we're not just suspecting this is happening, we're seeing it, and we can see it if it keeps going like this, it is likely to result in Ukraine falling to Russia.
SCIUTTO: And to your point, you mentioned it, you highlighted there the change here that Russia she says seems to be correcting the problem of the great losses as it has suffered in Ukraine, or at least being able to backfill, not just for soldiers, but for weapons, for ammunition, et cetera. In other words, not as damaged as they might have assessed just last year.
DOZIER: Absolutely. When you read last year's reports, it was assessing that perhaps Russia was overextended, that most of its military was deployed to Ukraine, that was facing supply challenges. This year, it's different. This year, this is a Moscow that is firm in its will to attack and it's also securing supplies so that it will be able to continue to attack, not necessarily, that, you know, if Ukraine had supplies, of course, it could keep fighting on and it will keep wanting to fight on.
But Moscow seems to know, Putin seems to understand that all he has to do is outpace the patience of Europe and the West, the U.S., to fund this war.
SCIUTTO: He has long calculated that he would have more patience than the West, Ukraine's allies. You're watching Senator Mark Warner, Democrat, who is asking questions of the director of national intelligence.
Before we go, David Sanger, another point that stood out to me, listening to Avril Haines there, was her assessment of the U.S.-China relationship that the positive ties that we've seen and reported on in recent months between the U.S. and Beijing will continue this year. Not exactly a long timeline on that. She seems to be describing that as an interim period and after which what?
SANGER: So, she's picking up on a change that we began to hear when President Biden and President Xi Jinping in China met in California right around Thanksgiving. You may remember on the edges of a summit meeting. And at that moment, President Xi then went off and sort of courted U.S. investors, say, you really need to come back and so forth.
And that was by their own assessment which he repeated today because they're fearing that their foreign direct investment is drying up. They've obviously got a huge debt overhang and property. They've got a lot of economic troubles. What she's saying is these are going to go on for awhile, but the
relationship is only going to be good because they need us for this moment.
SCIUTTO: Right. Demographic changes as well last thing, too.
SANGER: Yeah.
SCIUTTO: David Sanger, thanks so much. Kimberly Dozier as well.
We will continue to monitor those hearings from the floor of the U.S. Senate there.
Meanwhile, coming up, as aid for Ukraine, as we discussed, hangs in the balance and with new revelations about just how close we may have come to witnessing a nuclear strike in Ukraine -- Ukraine's ambassador to the U.S., Oksana Markarova, she's going to join us live next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[15:21:43]
SCIUTTO: Welcome back.
Now, new reporting on just how close the U.S. believes Russia came to a tactical nuclear strike on Ukraine in 2022. In late summer and early fall 2022, two senior U.S. administration officials tell me the U.S. began, quote, preparing rigorously for Russia potentially striking Ukraine with a tactical nuclear weapon in what would have been the first nuclear attack in war since the U.S. dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, nearly 80 years ago.
As I lay out in the new book, "The Return of Great Powers", which is published tomorrow, what led the Biden administration to reach such a startling assessment was not one indicator but a collection of developments, analysis, and crucially, highly sensitive new intelligence, including communications among Russian commanders discussing such a nuclear strike. We had to plan so that we were in the best possible position in case this no longer unthinkable event actually took place, a senior U.S. administration official told me.
Joining me now to discuss that, and the current situation in Ukraine as well, is the Ukrainian ambassador to the United States, Oksana Markarova.
Ambassador, thanks so much for joining me.
OKSANA MARKAROVA, UKRAINIAN AMBASSADOR TO THE UNITED STATES: Thank you, Jim, for having me.
SCIUTTO: So as you heard, and I report in this new book that in late 2022 from the U.S. perspective, this was potentially imminent to the point where the U.S. began preparing rigorously for this very possibility, a nuclear strike -- tactical nuclear strike on Ukraine. I wonder what did you know at the time, and did you share those concerns? MARKAROVA: Jim, first of all, you know, the unthinkable became
undeniable when 24th of February, when Russia attacked us. And after that, that not only we have seen all the atrocities on the ground, but I want to remind that very early on, they have occupied the Chernobyl station and the Zaporizhzhia nuclear station. And the Zaporizhzhia nuclear station remains occupied. And as we have seen in Bucha and other places, there is no red lines.
So, yes, we have monitored very carefully, especially all the crimes that Russia was doing around the nuclear stations, attacking them, putting them under risk. But then I want to remind you that in October '22, that's when Russia started spreading false information and criminal -- war criminal Shoigu even started calling everyone saying that Ukraine will drop a dirty bomb or something like this.
So we also wanted to make very public that this is false. This is lie from Russia. And, of course, we couldn't exclude that they might be contemplating something bad.
But look, we see all these atrocities and horrible stuff on the ground and they already war criminals thousands, you know, thousands -- tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands times. All we can do is to focus on how to stop it, how to defeat Russia, and how to prevent everything, including the nuclear disasters.
SCIUTTO: Right. And, listen, I certainly don't want to minimize the already civilian tragedy unfolding on the ground in Ukraine, but it was notable that a few weeks ago, Putin claimed in comments to the Russian federal assembly that NATO, and the U.S., in his words, are preparing to strike Russia.
[15:25:02]
He then added that they, the West, have to understand that we also have weapons, that's a quote. And he added all of this is very dangerous as it could trigger the use of nuclear weapons.
I wonder when you hear comments like that and you hear U.S. concerns from the early stages of the war, do you believe such a nuclear threat to Ukraine still exists?
MARKAROVA: Well, until Russia is defeated, all kinds of threats exist and exist to offer all of us from Russia. So -- but also, let's face it, it's a typical bully behavior and they're trying to bully all of us into submission.
I can tell you that Ukrainians, from President Zelenskyy, to the people on the battlefield, and mothers in every way in Ukraine will not be bullied and will not surrender, and we are asking all of our partners to stay the course. And when they meet force as we have seen during this two years, they retreat. We already liberated 50 percent of our land. We already liberated the Black Sea to a large extent. We already created our own corridor to export something.
All we need is a little bit more weapons, a little bit more support, many more sanctions and isolation to Russia, and we can actually stop this risk.
SCIUTTO: A short time ago, in fact, the testimony continues on the U.S. Senate floor. The director of national intelligence of the U.S., Avril Haines. She said in her words: Without continued U.S. assistance to Ukraine, it is hard to imagine how Ukraine can maintain its defense.
And I wonder if you share that, if the U.S. is not if Congress does not pass additional aid is Ukraine abandoned effectively? Could it continue to defend itself on its own?
MARKAROVA: Well, it's a very critical time, pivotal time, and I agree it will be very hard, it will be, you know, to do that. Now, we will not surrender as we said, and our European partners have stepped up, but we need, you are asked to stay the course as well.
And, Jim, I'm sure talking to so many people, so many Americans, talking to members of Congress on a bipartisan basis. I have faced in American people and American Congress. I really hope that this support will come soon, and we critically need it (ph).
SCIUTTO: Let me ask you this because I know that in your role here, you're in touch with Capitol Hill frequently, and, of course, the continuing debate, and let's be frank, delays for months over continued military assistance. Top Republicans -- of supporters of Ukrainian aid, they say they believe there is a path and there will be a vote that this will go to the floor and it will pass.
Given I'm sure you've been disappointed before, do you still believe those predictions?
MARKAROVA: Not only we believe in them, we do everything positive, everything possible to share the information, to address any concerns. I just want to remind that Ukraine is using all the American support in a very efficient and transparent way. We have done remarkable things, actually containing the enemy, which is not the enemy of Ukraine only. And winning Uk -- winning this war in Ukraine while it's still in Ukraine is the only path to actually contain Russia and not have a much bigger war in which all of us, including American people who have to participate.
So it's -- it's a right thing to do. It's a good thing to do. It's also effective send to do. And I hear words of support again from both parties on a very strong basis. Now, I really hope that the path towards this will be found soon because the time is of the essence, Jim.
SCIUTTO: No question. We're learning that Russia appears on track to produce nearly three times as much artillery munitions as the U.S. and Europe combined. At the same time, officials say Russia is already out-firing Ukrainian forces, perhaps 10,000 rounds to 2,000 a day, five to one. How sustainable is that for Ukrainian forces?
MARKAROVA: Well, that's a question not only to Ukrainian forces. Look, Russians are doing it with the help of Iran and North Korea. The question is, can we all democracies do better? And I'm sure we have to do better. We have to show that democracies can defend themselves.
Now with a very limited supply of munitions, Ukraine has been able to actually win during this two years and liberate 50 percent. It gives an enemy which is so much larger, which is brutal, which does not adhere to the rules of engagement, rules of war, even not to mention that this war is unjustified and unprovoked. But, you know, we are working not only on how to get additional support, how to get the additional donations from our friends and partners, but how to produce together. And we have to do it together in order to be stronger.
SCIUTTO: Before we go and I'm sure you saw this last night, "20 Days in Mariupol", it won the Academy Award for best documentary feature film. It's the first Oscar win for Ukrainian film.
[15:30:02]
The director said, last night as he accepted the award, that he wished he never had to make this film.
Have a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MISTYSLAV CHERNOV, DIRECTOR, "20 DAYS IN MARIUPOL": Probably, I will be the first director on this stage who will say I wish I would never made this film. I wish to be able to exchange this to Russia never attacking Ukraine, never occupying our cities.
(APPLAUSE)
To -- I wish to give it all the recognition to Russia not killing tens of thousands of my fellow Ukrainians.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCIUTTO: Ambassador, I'm certain you would make that trade as well, but I wonder what does this Oscar mean for you and for the people of Ukraine?
MARKAROVA: All Ukrainians would make the choice and Mistyslav, who's not only a talented, absolutely a talented person, but a friend, has been here ten days ago when we were showing the documentary to everyone, and I would ask everyone to watch it. This Oscar means the truth still matters in our world. The truth can win. And that all of us, good people, can not only sympathize to each other, but also help each other and do what is right in this situation.
So again, it's a very bitter Oscar for the team and for everyone, and especially for those in Mariupol who still and occupation for 747 days, not just the '20. We can see because of this (INAUDIBLE), very, very good work.
SCIUTTO: Under occupation and then a beautiful city laid to waste by Russian attacks.
Ambassador Markarova, always good to have you on. Thanks so much for joining today.
MARKAROVA: Thank you very much. God bless you.
SCIUTTO: Well, today, the U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is in Jamaica. This for an emergency meeting on the rapidly deteriorating situation in Haiti. The U.S. embassy in Haiti has evacuated additional personnel due to heightened gang violence quite near the U.S. embassy compounds.
CNN State Department reporter Jennifer Hansler joins me now.
Jennifer, I wonder who is Blinken meeting with, and is there any putative plan to attempt to stabilize Haiti at this point?
JENNIFER HANSLER, CNN STATE DEPARTMENT REPORTER: Well, Jim, Secretary of State Blinken is meeting with a group called CARICOM, which is a multinational organization company prize of states in the Caribbean to discuss is very dire situation in Haiti.
And the key topic of conversation today is expected to be a proposal that is on the table from CARICOM that would accelerate a transition in Haiti from under Prime Minister Ariel Henry to what they are calling an independent presidential college.
Now, Henry is not expected to be at the meeting today and it's unclear if he is prepared to actually take this deal in which he would cede power to this broader, more inclusive government in Haiti.
Another key topic, Jim, is this multinational security support mission that Kenya has offered to lead and which could offer some hope in stabilizing the security situation there.
A Kenyan official said today that they are, quote, in the pre- deployment phase. So it is still unclear when they might actually be on the ground there. But, of course, there is a very urgent need for this situation to come under control. As you mentioned, the U.S. had to evacuate via airlift over the weekend more personnel who were serving at the embassy there. They also brought in additional security people in order to guard the embassy as there has been a huge explosion of gang violence both around the embassy compound near the airport and across the country.
So it's very unclear what is going to come out of these meetings. But clearly the urgency is there that they did convene such a last-minute meeting here.
SCIUTTO: No question that people suffering there in the middle of it.
Jennifer Hansler at the State Department, thanks so much.
When we come back, we're going to go live to New Hampshire here in the U.S. where President Biden is hoping health care sway voters in battleground state.
Do stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[15:36:35]
SCIUTTO: President Biden is taking the State of the Union on the road now. Today, that means to New Hampshire, a state Biden carried by roughly 60,000 votes four years ago. But is shaping up to potentially even closer as a race this time around.
CNN's Kevin Liptak is with president in New Hampshire. He joins me now.
This is clearly part of a continuation, it seems, of the State of the Union message, making this a campaign pitch and going from key state to key states. So tell us how he's going to make that argument today.
KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yeah, they really do want to keep the momentum and energy going from that speech last, last week, which it did feel very good about, and his message here in New Hampshire is really centered around the issue of health care. And they really do think that that is a potent if sometimes overlooked issue for American voters. And it's one that resonates particularly here in New Hampshire. It's a state that skews older and the audience today was mostly people of retirement age.
Take a listen to the president's message, both about what he has done on healthcare and really trying to draw the contrast with Republicans and with the former President Donald Trump on this issue. And you did hear him talking about the steps that he's taken while in office, things like requiring Medicare to negotiate the price of prescription drugs, things like capping the cost of insulin. Polls do show that those are very popular measures that the president has taken, but they also indicate that most Americans have no idea that there, even out there, that the president has done them.
And so, he really does have some work cut out for and when it comes to taking credit for these measures that he has taken, you also hear him really going after Donald Trump on the issue of Obamacare. And of course, in the 14 years since that law was signed, it has actually become very popular and Democrats have had a lot of success running on it.
Listen to a little bit of his message on that front today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: My predecessor and many Republicans want to take that away, take that protection by repealing the Affordable Care Act. I'm not going to happen. We stopped them literally 50 times, 50, 5-0 times in the last administration. And we're going to stop them again.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LIPTAK: So this steps up in New Hampshire really does kick off a big campaign week for the president. He will also be in Wisconsin. He'll be in Michigan, the vice president also traveling to a number of battleground states. The campaign really does view this as the kickoff moment as they try and draw that contrast with Trump in the months before the election -- Jim.
SCIUTTO: Yeah, we are very much in that general election campaign now, are we not?
Kevin Liptak with the president, thanks so much.
So let's bring in our panel to discuss. CNN political commentator Scott Jennings and Democratic strategist Adrienne Elrod.
Good to have you both on. Thanks so much for taking the time.
Adrienne, if I could begin with you because clearly, the Biden administration believes health care can be a strong issue for them. This ABC News poll from last month shows on this issue, at least voters trust Biden more than Trump on health care. Not so as you can see there on the economy, immigration and crime.
I wonder, how does Biden make it a central issue because as Kevin Liptak was saying a lot of folks aren't aware of, for instance, that he lowered or negotiated down the price of prescription drugs. And do you believe, Adrienne Elrod, that this is a key voting issue in this cycle?
ADRIENNE ELROD, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Yeah, I certainly do.
[15:40:00]
And maybe this is something that Scott can answer for me because I can't understand for -- time after time why Republicans think trying to repeal the Affordable Care Act, which is overwhelmingly popular with Democrats, Republicans, independent voters, you name it, across the board, why they want to repeal it? Why do they want to go out there? What is Trump want to go out there and talk about cutting entitlements like Social Security and Medicare?
That is not a very popular issue. These are not popular places where Republicans support cutting these programs. So I don't understand, you know, why Republicans, why Trump continues to -- to want to cut this.
But I think this is something to your point, Jim, where President Biden can continue to focus on drawing a contrast with Donald Trump, making it very clear that he's the one who not only is fighting to continue to reduce prescription drug costs, these also the one who was done it you know, capping insulin as you reported -- reporter just mentioned it at $35, which was a dramatic step and really helped a lot of families across America.
So, it continues to be a mystery to me why Republicans want to cut entitlements. Why they want to cut the Affordable Care Act. But I think this is something where President Biden can really make that contrast and draw a clear distinction between him and Donald Trump.
SCIUTTO: Okay, Scott, to you on that point is, of course, your former boss tried to repeal Obamacare, held back by one Republican vote at the time, the late Senator John McCain. Will Trump take another shot at it? What would the Senate or the House if Republicans were to get the majority attempt again to repeal? And if so, good idea or bad idea?
SCOTT JENNINGS, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yeah. I mean, it doesn't seem likely to me. I mean, the thing about entitlements is the longer they go on, longer government programs go on a longer, they go on. And so it doesn't seem likely to me.
I mean, I think Republicans still don't really like the law because it didn't fulfill many of the promises that were made. Most importantly, affordability, which continues to be I think the number one health care problem in America as Americans keep saying, to pollsters like it's too expensive, my insurance premiums are too expensive. My premiums are too expensive.
And so as long as that persists, I think there's going to be an argument for Republicans to make that there could be health care reforms that need to be addressed. If I were Donald Trump, if I were running a Republican campaign, I would laser focus on affordability. I think that's the key issue and probably will get the most discussion on the election.
SCIUTTO: S, Adrienne mentioned Social Security and the presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump, was asked about his position on Social Security this morning and gave the following answer. I want to play it for you, Scott, and get your thoughts and yours as well, Adrienne.
Have a listen
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT & 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE (via telephone): So, first of all, there is a lot you can do in terms of entitlements, in terms of cutting and in terms of also the thief and the bad management of its entitlements, tremendous bad management of entitlements. There's tremendous amounts of things, numbers of things you can do.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCIUTTO: What are those things, specifically, Scott Jennings? And did he just come out in favor of cutting Social Security entitlements? That's what he seemed to say.
JENNINGS: I was actually watching it live when it happened, then I thought to myself that was an unfortunate phrasing to use the word cutting. I mean, Republicans have always believed that in any entitlement program system for all the entitlements, that there is a tremendous amount of waste, fraud, and abuse, and all Republican presidential candidates have always wanted to try to do more to get rid of that.
I mean, as it relates to Social Security and Medicare for Donald Trump, he changed the paradigm in the Republican Party. Remember, he is the one going all the way back to 2016, who totally rejected congressional Republican efforts to do any kind of entitled reform at all. I mean, he really has changed the party orthodoxy on this.
So, no, I don't think he's going to be running on cutting Social Security and Medicare because he's the person who's frankly done a 180 on the Republican platform on that topic.
SCIUTTO: Adrienne, I wonder, would you trust that? If Donald Trump were to be elected and should -- should voters trust that, that either under him or a Republican majority that entitlements would not be cut significantly?
ELROD: Look, Jim, here's the bottom line. Whatever Donald Trump says he's going to do, he does. We've seen that historically happened and you can either look at that as a good thing or a bad thing. I think in this particular case and in frankly, a lot of issues that he talks about, whenever he says he's going to do something like cutting Social Security and Medicare, we should take him at his word. We should take that very seriously.
And I bet you, that President Biden is going to also take that very seriously and talk about this very heavily on the campaign trail. He's going to go into towns and communities across the country and make it clear that again, this is a giant distinction between him and Donald Trump. That Joe Biden wants to protect your Social Security and your Medicare, and so do Democrats, by the way. Republicans and Donald Trump do not.
It's going to -- it's a clear distinction. And I think its something again that a lot of voters, especially those key independent swing voters, who will decide this election are going to look at and take very seriously.
SCIUTTO: Well, they'll have eight months, both of them, to make their case.
Scott Jennings, Adrianne Elrod, thanks so much to both of you.
[15:45:02]
ELROD: Thanks, Jim.
JENNINGS: Nice.
SCIUTTO: And when we do come back, U.S. intelligence officials still testifying on Capitol Hill on worldwide threats facing the U.S. and its allies. What specifically they are warning of. That's coming up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SCIUTTO: Top us intelligence officials have been testifying on Capitol Hill just behind me this afternoon on the slew of worldwide threats facing the U.S. and its allies.
CNN national security reporter Katie Bo Lillis and CNN national security analyst David Sanger bringing them in as we get up-to-date on the latest.
Katie, you've been listening to hearing there. Highlights include the threat from China, but also TikTok specifically, which has become quite an issue here in the U.S.
KATIE BO LILLIS, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY REPORTER: Yeah, Jim, you're hearing lawmakers, I think press particularly FBI director Chris Wray on TikTok pretty high heavily, also hearing a lot of interesting updates, I think from the intelligence community about how it views sort of a variety of different threats facing the United States today. This is really around the world tour, one that really stood out to me, Jim, from the -- from the unclassified report that the intelligence community produces as sort of part of this annual exercise was about Chinese support for Russia and its war for Ukraine.
The intelligence community telling -- telling lawmakers in this unclassified report that they now believe that China has tripled its export of goods with potential military use to Russia for -- that it has used in its conflict in Ukraine. Also hearing from intelligence leaders as part of this report how they view Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's potential political future as the conflict in Gaza continues to rage.
The intel community writing in this report and telling lawmakers that they at this point believe that Netanyahu is quote, via ability as a leader is, quote, in jeopardy. The other big headline here that I think is sort of standing out to me, is that the intel community also really pushing for ongoing aid to Ukraine.
You heard from director of national intelligence, Avril Haines, as she made a sort of unusual plea to lawmakers here in her for opening remarks saying, look, if the United States does not continue to provide the kind of support to Ukraine that is envisioned in this $60 billion aid bill that's currently stalled before Congress that its going to be really difficult for Ukraine to maintain the gains that its made.
So really bouncing from a lot of different topics here. But lawmakers have limited amount of time with these intel leaders and they're going to try to get as much as they can into this appearance.
SCIUTTO: Thanks so much, Katie.
With David Sanger now as well.
I want to play the moment where Bill Burns, the CIA director, made a connection which he and other U.S. intelligence officials make frequently. And that is the tie between what happens in Ukraine and what might happen to Taiwan.
Have a listen. I'm going to get David's thoughts.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BILL BURNS, CIA DIRECTOR: Away from support for Ukraine, not only as they're going to feed doubts amongst our allies and partners in the Indo-Pacific, it's going to stoke the ambition of the Chinese leadership and contingencies ranging from Taiwan to the South China Sea
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[15:50:14]
SCIUTTO: It's a frequent warning. David Sanger, is it not, that connection. They will say China is watching our response to Ukraine closely and if Ukraine loses, Taiwan is under threat.
SANGER: So this is sort of the new domino theory, right? And it's not that communism will spread the way one thought in the 1960s, or '70s, part of the argument for the U.S. going into Vietnam. The argument here is if the U.S. shows that it flags, the Chinese will note this and say, well, look, if they don't have a stomach to go help out Ukraine for longer than two years, how long are they going to fight over Taiwan, which is, of course, much closer to Chinese shores.
SCIUTTO: And, by the way, no U.S. soldiers on the ground in Ukraine in Taiwan, if President Biden were stick to what seems to be a new commitment to defend or potentially defend Taiwan militarily, China might say, well, if they're not going to fight that war where they're losing no soldiers, they're certainly not going to fight this world war where U.S. personnel might be under threat.
SANGER: I think that's right and because in all the simulations and you and I have sat in on some of these together. The casualties in early Taiwan conflict would be huge, way above anything that you were seeing, the intensity of the conflict in Ukraine. What I find really striking, Jim, as I just listened to this, is the change in tone from a year ago.
A year ago, they thought Ukraine was on the rise. The counteroffensive was coming. The Russians were beginning to think about what territory they could go give up. Now, they opened this by saying, the Russians are out-producing on armament.
Ukrainians, if they don't get the U.S. money, are going to lose ground.
SCIUTTO: Yeah. No question. And even at the time a year ago, concerns well, we cant let Russia fall too hard, right? To some degree.
SANGER: Yeah.
SCIUTTO: And now the question is how quickly they come back.
David Sanger, Katie Bo Lillis, thanks so much to both of you. We'll, of course, continue to monitor events on the Hill.
Another story we're following. This photo certainly wasn't worth 1,000 words, but it did launch 1,000 questions. We're going to try to answer a few of them coming up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [15:54:02]
SCIUTTO: The British royal family, and Kensington Palace in damage control today, over a vote of the palace shared of Catherine, the princess of Wales, and her three children. Several international news agencies pull the image saying it had been manipulated.
Today, the princess of Wales apologized for that photo saying, quote, like many amateur photographers, I do occasionally experiment with editing. I wanted to express my apologies for any confusion, the family photograph we shared yesterday caused. I hope everyone's celebrating had a very happy Mother's Day.
CNN's royal correspondent Max Foster joins us now.
Max, are we any closer to figuring out what happened here and what exactly the changes were and why?
MAX FOSTER, CNN ROYAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's difficult to know exactly what's going on, with giving very little information. And this has really undermine a lot of trust in a way because this photo wasn't just posted on social media. It was also sent out for editorial use to the picture agencies without transparency. So, they've admitted that the princess manipulated this picture.
[15:55:02]
And they should have told the agencies that the agencies are telling this crosses a line of journalism for them.
So they, they pulled those pictures out. We're still using it so we can sort of make the point. There are a couple of points in the picture, so there's -- that we've looked at so -- Charlotte's sleeve, for example, the zipper on Kate's top as well. There are some questions there according to our experts, other people are bringing out a lot more from that image.
The narrative we're getting from the palace is that this is someone who posted a picture on social, was experimenting with tweaking it. And lots of people effectively do that. I think the difference here is that they are this big public institution. There are lots of conspiracy theories right now about any sort of cover up involving Kate's health and they did send it out in a press release effectively
SCIUTTO: Yeah. The princess was pictured in a car departing Windsor counts -- castle with Prince William earlier today. Was that deliberate? What do we know about the situation?
FOSTER: So, I mean, this wasn't an official photo. We are showing it because it shows that she is out and she was William was going to an event, an official event. But Kate wasn't. So we were obviously wondering why she was out and about and she was going to private appointment, but it does show that she's well enough to be out and about.
SCIUTTO: No question. You raised the credibility issues here because this was shared as a family photograph. It wasn't say a Facebook post, right? It was meant to be official.
What does it tell us about the credibility right now of the royal family today and abroad?
FOSTER: Well, I think the great difficulty for us is that, you know, they've had -- there's very little information about the princess's health and that its for legitimate reasons, is a private medical matter. And the palace said, normally share them and we don't know how unwell she is.
But in a vacuum of information, all sorts of conspiracy -- conspiracy theories have emerged. We've avoided them because they take you down a rabbit hole which doesn't really tell you anything because there's not based on any facts. It's just people literally making things up.
What they've effectively done now is made us sort of look at those because there's -- you know, one the conspiracy theories is there was a cover up and whilst can't be explained as that necessarily, there have been some tweaks.
SCIUTTO: Max Foster, thanks so much for covering.
And thanks so much for all of you for joining me today. I'm Jim Sciutto in Washington. And, of course, the news continues after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
