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Thousands Feared Dead After Earthquake Hits Turkey, Syria; GOP Accuses Biden of Weak Response to Chinese Spy Balloon; FedEx Plan Almost Hits Southwest Flight in Another Near-Miss. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired February 06, 2023 - 07:00   ET

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

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[07:00:00]

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Very difficult task for us. We need help. We need the international community to do something to help us, to support us. We see it now, it's a disaster area. We need help from everyone to save our people.

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DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Remember him, because there are many people like him searching for loved ones and others.

Good morning, everyone. There's a desperate plea for help after a catastrophic earthquake killed more than 1,500 people in Turkey and Syria. And I said, keep an eye on, him there are many like him, because we're going to speak to that very same rescuer, one of Syria's White Helmets, as he searches for survivors in the wreckage.

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Right now, emergency crews are scrambling in Ohio trying to keep a toxic train wreck from exploding.

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Also, after the U.S. shot down the suspected Chinese surveillance balloon, there is the diplomatic crisis and Republican blowback that President Biden is now facing, all as he's preparing to give the second state of the union address tomorrow night.

Also this --

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Southwest, abort. FedEx is on the go.

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HARLOW: Close call there, another near disaster at a U.S. airport. What we're learning about that very close call between a Southwest flight and a FedEx plane. LEMON: But we're going to begin this morning in Turkey and Syria, where more than 1,500 people are now reported dead after a massive and catastrophic earthquake flattened buildings and homes while people were asleep. The death toll just keeps rising and rapidly, as rescue teams search for survivors and pull bodies out of giant piles of concrete.

The situation particularly dire in Northwest Syria, it is an area that has already been ravaged by the country's horrific civil war. This is video of rescuers pulling a toddler out of the rubble. Little girl's clothes stained with blood.

Take a look at this video. It's from Turkey. And it's just moments ago a major and powerful aftershock. If you look at the water along the side of the road, you can see it is thrashing back and forth.

Jomana Karadsheh is are tracking the very latest developments from Istanbul. Good morning, Jomana. What do you know at this hour?

JOMANA KARADSHEH, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely devastating major 7.8 Earthquake that struck about 11 hours ago. The epicenter, Don, of this earthquake was the province of Gaziantep in Southern Turkey. But the impact, the effect this has had, it stretches across at least ten provinces in Southern Turkey and as well as into neighboring Syria across the border into rebel-held areas into Syria, in the northwestern part of the country, as well as regime-controlled areas.

We've been getting information coming in from officials that this death toll is continuing to rise in both countries. As you mentioned, more than 1,500 people so far, the Turkish president saying more than 900 so far confirmed killed in Turkey. But the concern is they don't know how many people remain under the rubble.

We are talking about this vast, vast area of devastation, an area where you have so many buildings, thousands of buildings, according to the Turkish president, that have been destroyed. So, the fear here in a country that has seen so many devastating earthquakes over the years, some that have claimed thousands of lives that this could be another one. The Turkish president, Erdogan, describing this as the biggest disaster in more than 100 years, Don.

LEMON: Jomana, thank you. We appreciate your reporting, live in Istanbul this morning.

HARLOW: So, joining us now from near the earthquake's epicenter in Gaziantep, Turkey, is Dr. Mazen Kewara. He is a Middle East director for the Syrian-American Medical Society, which is a relief organization. They work on the frontlines of crisis just like this. Doctor, thank you. Good morning to you.

I know when you and your family started to feel everything shaking around you, my first question is, are they all okay? And can you describe what it is like around you?

DR. MAZEN KEWARA, TURKEY COUNTRY DIRECTOR, SYRIAN-AMERICAN MEDICAL SOCIETY: Yes. Thank you so much. Yes, they are all okay. They are all in my car here with me. They're all okay. And thank God that everyone is safe.

LEMON: He is sitting in your car. Is that the safest place for you guys to be at this moment, is sitting in a car, unfortunately?

[07:05:00]

KEWARA: Yes. Yes. We cannot use the buildings anymore for maybe hours, maybe until tomorrow. I don't know, because we continue experiencing the aftershocks. So, the last one was 7.6. So, it's very, very strong. So, we cannot go back to buildings and apartments.

COLLINS: And is that because of the makeup of the buildings? I mean, I was reading that a lot of the buildings in Gaziantep are made of brick, brittle concrete, that they're pretty vulnerable to those aftershocks. Is that your major concern here?

KEWARA: I don't know. Frankly speaking, you cannot see that big damage in Gaziantep City right now. But next to my building about 200 to 300 meters, there is a collapsed building. And there are many buildings collapsed in that area. So, I cannot tell you why. It's not real to me. There is not that big destruction in the city but some buildings are collapsed already.

HARLOW: Doctor, you're originally from Damascus. So, could you speak to after ten years of civil war has ravaged Syria, what the challenge will be like, the scale of the challenge to find any possible survivors and also to try to rebuild after this considering the war?

KEWARA: The situation before the earthquake was very dire and catastrophe, especially in the areas of -- the rebel-controlled areas in Northwest Syria. So, I've projected this earthquake came to make things very, very, very challenging to us as a humanitarian organization to be able to respond to the humanitarian needs there.

So, as you know, the situation before that, we were very -- it was very challenging situation because of the winter circumstances and lack of funding and the devolution of the currency value to everything against simple civilians there. The effort came right now to maybe make the final hit to those communities. I don't know. I cannot explain to you right now what the situation. We have four of our hospitals (INAUDIBLE) hospitals damaged here severely by the earthquake. They evacuated two of them because of the altitude. And the number of collapsed buildings in Northern Syria is huge. So, I don't know. I don't know what to say to you.

LEMON: Hey, Doctor, can I ask you something quickly, because I'm just fascinated by your personal situation. How many people have you got in the car with you there?

KEWARA: We are six right now.

LEMON: Six in one car. And who is holding the camera?

KEWARA: Do you want to say hello to my kids? Yes. LEMON: Are you able to open the window to see where you are and what it's like behind you?

KEWARA: Yes. Yes. I can. But because it's very rainy circumstances and rainy conditions here in Gaziantep, the people are collecting themselves in a collection center, like collection centers here in Gaziantep prepared by the (INAUDIBLE). So, it is the safest area I can feel safe in my car with the family.

LEMON: Well, you guys be safe and thank you for showing us. And we hope that, you know, they can -- the rescuers can get to the folks as soon as possible. But, Doctor, we really appreciate you joining us. And thanks for introducing us to your family as well. Stay safe.

COLLINS: And as we continue to monitor what is happening in Turkey and Syria, we're also monitoring the fallout from the Chinese spy balloon that is now looming over President Biden's highly anticipated state of anticipated state of the union address tomorrow night. Top GOP lawmakers are criticizing the president and his administration for waiting until Saturday afternoon to bring down the balloon.

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SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R-FL): Presidents have the ability to go before camera, go before the nation and basically explain these things early on.

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And his failure to do so, I don't understand that. I don't understand why he wouldn't do that. And that is the beginning of dereliction of duty. SEN. TOM COTTON (R-AR): What began as a spy balloon has become a

trial balloon, testing President Biden's strength and resolve. And, unfortunately, the president failed that test.

SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX): Yes. I think this entire episode telegraphed weakness to Xi and the Chinese government.

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COLLINS: Now, House Republicans are considering passing a resolution that would condemn the Biden administration for the way it handled the balloon. It is mainly symbolic. It is a non-binding resolution. But it would set the stage for President Biden's address.

CNN's M.J. Lee is live at the White House. M.J., we heard criticism from Republicans, but what is the explanation from the White House about the timing? Why Saturday afternoon was when they decided to finally bring down the balloon?

M.J. LEE, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, what we've learned, Kaitlan, is that when President Biden first learned about the suspected spy balloon, his initial reaction was to say, well, shoot it down. But now we know that his military advisers told him that that wouldn't be a good idea essentially because the debris that would result from shooting that balloon down over U.S. land could really hurt people on the ground. I mean, remember, the payload, the structure really below that balloon was the size of three buses. And so they essentially advised him, we need to do this at a safe moment when it is essentially over a body of water, and that is what happened.

U.S. officials are now saying that they did this at the safest and earliest possible moment and that they are now focused on the recovery efforts and that what President Biden himself is specifically focused on is trying to recover as much of the structure as possible so that they can learn as much as possible about the Chinese surveillance efforts.

But as you just played there, Republican officials over the weekend very much criticizing the president for not acting with enough speed or transparency. And, as you said, this looms over his state of the union speech on Tuesday. You can imagine that if there were going to be any explicit mentions of China, this is certainly going to alter that.

COLLINS: Yes. And so that's the big question here in the bigger picture of this, as you know, they had to cancel Secretary Blinken's expected trip to China this week. The broader question I think people will be asking regardless of the criticism of what they should have done is how it affects U.S. relations with China. They were already not great. And so what are officials saying about that?

LEE: Yes. You know, as you just said, U.S.-Chinese relations were incredibly fraught to begin with. We know that there was an attempt at a real reset in recent months really starting with that big bilateral meeting between President Biden and President Xi Jinping of China. But now, things are really looking not good again. There is the diplomatic fallout that we are seeing clearly playing out beginning with Blinken, as you mentioned, delaying that trip to Beijing. And we just don't know exactly how this is going to play out because the U.S. is saying this is definitely a surveillance balloon and the Chinese are denying it and saying that this was an overreaction on the part of Washington.

COLLINS: Yes. Well, going to be hard for them to deny that, as the Navy is recovering, though. M.J. Lee, thank you for that report.

HARLOW: So, let's hear what Chinese officials are saying for the first time. Beijing is admitting that a secret balloon spotted over Latin America this weekend belongs to China and was, quote, used for flight tests, close quote. A Chinese foreign ministry official says that balloon seriously deviated from its plan due to weather.

Selina Wang joins us live in Beijing. You heard what M.J. said at the White House, the position of the Biden administration. What is the position of Chinese officials this morning?

SELINA WANG, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Poppy, they're still sticking to their claim that it was a weather balloon. But now for the first time, they're acknowledging another balloon in addition to the one spotted over the U.S. When I asked the ministry of foreign affairs spokesperson about that balloon spotted over Latin America, she said it came from China. And as for how it got there, well, the explanation was very similar to Beijing's claim of how the other balloon entered the U.S. She told me the balloon over Latin America was civilian. And due to the weather and limited ability to control the air shift, it drifted into area by, quote, mistake. And take a listen to this other exchange I had at the press briefing.

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WANG: The U.S. is confident though that what they shot down is, in fact, a spy balloon, disclosing that it contains surveillance equipment not normally associated with civilian research, like collection pod equipment and solar panels. The balloon was flying over sensitive areas. Can you help us understand how this could be a weather balloon?

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MAO NING, CHINESE FOREIGN MINISTRY SPOKESPERSON: The unmanned airship is also civilian in nature. We have made it clear that this was an unexpected instant caused by force majeur. But the U.S. side is deliberately hyping it up and even attacking by force, which is unacceptable and irresponsible.

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WANG: And, Poppy, state media is parroting that line and also blaming U.S. domestic politics for escalating things. But, look, regardless of these moves by China were deliberate or clumsy miscalculations, they're embarrassing for Beijing.

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Xi Jinping has been on a charm offensive, trying to reset relations with countries that were badly damaged during the pandemic. And now this sets China back diplomatically making it even harder for Beijing to convince the world that it can play by international rules. Poppy?

HARLOW: Absolutely. Selina Wang, thank you for that reporting from Beijing.

LEMON: The perfect person to discuss now, Democratic Congressman Jim Himes of Connecticut. He is a ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee. Good morning, thank you for coming in. I appreciate it.

REP. JIM HIMES (D-CT): Good morning, Don.

LEMON: So, let's get to it. Have you gotten any updates about what they have found in this debris?

HIMES: No. I'm not sure anybody has because we have been out of D.C. for the weekend, so we haven't been in a position go into a SCIF to get a classified briefing. But I do anticipate that either today or in the very near future, we'll get briefed on what this is all about.

LEMON: Do you think anything that they will find will be useful intelligence? HIMES: Absolutely. There's no question about that. And that is one of the elements that is being lost in this whole conversation. Being able to capture hopefully undamaged, who knows, what should be their cutting-edge surveillance technology is just a huge intelligence win.

LEMON: Yes. So, you will get a briefing? You haven't gotten a briefing on this, right?

HIMES: That's correct, yes.

LEMON: Because I understand you're going to receive a briefing on this incident tomorrow as a member of the so-called gang of eight. What do are you hoping to hear?

HIMES: Well, you know, people -- you're hearing a lot of breathless criticism of the decision-making process that the president has. A lot of that, of course, is just partisan, right? The very same senators who haven't been briefed who are all over Joe Biden right now. Had Joe Biden shot this thing down against the advice of the military advisers, then you're criticizing him for that.

What we're going to learn is what the TikTok was, what was the decision that's made. What we may not be able to talk about is a lot of value in observing an asset like this. What did we learn by watching this thing over a period of time? When were the decisions taken? And most interestingly, what are we going to learn about the equipment, right? Who made the semiconductors that are on this thing? What are its capabilities? We'll learn a lot.

LEMON: Well, speaking of what you said in the first part of the answer, your colleague on the House Intelligence Committee, Republican Mike Turner of Ohio, was very critical of the fact that the balloon was allowed to enter U.S. airspace in the first place. Listen to this and then we'll discuss.

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REP. MIKE TURNER (R-OH): This should never have been allowed to enter the United States and it never should have been allowed to complete its mission. If you ask somebody to draw an X at every place where our sensitive missile defense sites or nuclear weapons infrastructure or nuclear weapon sites are, you would put them all along this path. Clearly, this was an attempt by China to gather information to defeat our command and control of our sensitive missile defense and nuclear weapons sites and that certainly is an urgency that this administration doesn't recognize.

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LEMON: Do you agree with his assessment? Do you think that the Pentagon and the White House should have acted faster?

HIMES: Well, again, you know, Mike articulates one point of view. He may turn out to be true. He doesn't know right now anymore than I know exactly what the decision-making process was. Look, there is enormous value in observing up close and personal an asset like this. What are its capabilities, how does it maneuver, what is it collecting, what is emanating? We need to see whether the decision was deliberate or whether it was careless. I'm going to withhold judgment until we get that TikTok.

LEMON: Correct me if I'm wrong. You did not want them to shoot it down. That was not what you want?

HIMES: When I learned, when America learned that this was not a weapons platform that presented no threat to the American people, as somebody who is focused on intelligence, I'm -- I would like to get this thing. You know, there's a lot, let's shoot it down over land. As I said sort of on social media, I would much rather have this thing whole than scraping its charred remains off a field in Nebraska. So, there is just immense intelligence value in having this thing brought down over water where we can salvage it in a more, hopefully, complete fashion.

LEMON: And now that it is shot down, because you wanted to have the intelligence intact. Do you think that his precludes that?

HIMES: No. I think -- again, I think bringing it down over water where we have naval capabilities to get this thing is a lot better than what it would have looked like had it been shot down and, you know, fallen into a granite mountain top.

LEMON: So, listen, this is not the first time this has happened, right? And you have insinuated the U.S. also uses similar technology in other parts of the world. Do you fear retaliation from China?

HIMES: I don't fear retaliation by China. They're the aggressor here. Make no mistake. They flew a military asset over our sovereign territory. So, no, I don't -- by the way, there is going to be retaliation against whoever engineered this operation inside Beijing. What a colossal embarrassment this is for the Chinese. But, no, I think -- and, you know, to be very clear here, there is a lot of people who are saying this is new and unprecedented. It's not. We've seen these balloons elsewhere. It should come as no surprise to anybody that the Chinese are spending billions and billions of dollars trying to get our secrets. This is what they do. This is a particularly clumsy attempt to do so.

LEMON: So, then all the hyper ventilation over this, is this hypocrisy on our part then? Because if we do the same thing and we shoot it down, then what?

HIMES: Well, it's not hypocrisy because we haven't flown any balloons over Chinese airspace. That is a really very aggressive and, by the way, stupid act. And so if they're angry that we shot this thing down, sorry, guys, don't fly your military assets over our country.

[07:20:00]

All I'm saying here now is that we should withhold judgment until we know all of the facts about what was on that thing, what it was doing and what the decision-making process was.

LEMON: Do you think Tony Blinken postponing the trip, do you think that was right?

HIMES: I think that was proportionate, right? Again, it's a black eye for China. I think the secretary of state did exactly the right thing.

LEMON: Let's talk state of the union tomorrow. What are you expecting from the president tomorrow?

HIMES: Well, I can tell you what I'm hoping from the president. I'm hoping that a two-year retrospective, this president and the Democratic Congress that capped the price of insulin for Americans at $35, that for the first time ever -- well, not ever, but a generation did a major infrastructure investment, that in a bipartisan way got a semiconductor deal done so that we don't have to worry about getting our semiconductors from China. The list of accomplishments in the last two years is really dramatic. And I hope that he focuses on those kitchen table issues after a week of talking about balloons.

LEMON: It is interesting. Everybody counted Joe Biden out even when he was running. And now that he is President Biden, people said, why he is trying work with the Republicans? This whole bipartisanship is not going to get anything accomplished? He has defied expectations. And yet there is new polling out in The Washington Post and ABC News that among voters who leaned Democratic, only 31 percent would like to see President Biden run in 2024. 58 percent would like to see someone else at the top of ticket. What say you about that?

HIMES: What I'll say is that if the American people look at what he did in his first two years when the Democrats had the House and the Senate, again, I could spend ten minutes talking about it, but lowered drug prices, investments infrastructure, the first in a generation gun safety bill, a lot of it done on a bipartisan basis. The Republicans, what are they offering right now? They're taking Ilhan Omar congressional committees. We voted on a resolution to condemn socialism, right?

I want the American people to see the contrast between the president, love him or hate him, who is delivering for the American people and the extremism that we're seeing in the Republican Party.

LEMON: This polling is only a snapshot in time. Do you see him on the ticket and running again?

HIMES: You know, that's obviously a deeply personal decision for him and his family. I don't -- I do intelligence but I don't have information --

LEMON: You would like him to run?

HIMES: I think he's got a heck of a record to run on. And at the end, we'll see, the contrast with Republicans and the next two years. So, I think that if he chooses to run, he is going to be a very strong candidate.

LEMON: Thank you, Congressman.

HIMES: Thank you, Don. LEMON: Always a pleasure. I appreciate it. Poppy?

HARLOW: It happened again, two planes nearly colliding at a U.S. airport. What we're learning as the feds launch an investigation.

COLLINS: Plus, continuing coverage of the devastating earthquake in Turkey and Syria, dramatic new video of people covered in debris running. We're going to have a live interview with a rescuer, speak to someone on the ground. They're searching through rubble for survivors.

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COLLINS: All right. If you can believe it, there was another near collision between two planes, this time in Austin, at the airport in Texas, when a FedEx plane was landing and a Southwest plane was taking official over the weekend. The NTSB is now investigating the cause of this near miss. And that is the same agency, as you know, that is also still investigating a similar close call at New York's JFK Airport back in January between the Delta and American plane that we all saw.

CNN's Pete Muntean is live in Washington tracking all of this. Pete, what happened here?

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kaitlan, minor incidents between two planes on the runway at the same time have been pretty often but very rarely between two commercial airliners and rarely twice in three weeks' time. What is immediately clear here is that one of these planes almost landed on top of the other, a near miss that could have very clearly been a disaster.

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MUNTEAN (voice over): It is the latest case of a near collision on the runway, this time an Austin-Bergstrom International Airport. The Federal Aviation Administration says on Saturday, a FedEx Boeing 767 was coming into land as a Southwest airlines 737 was cleared to take off ahead of it. Air traffic control recordings detail apparent concern from the tower as the Southwest flight remained on the runway.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Southwest 708, confirmed on the road?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Rolling now.

MUNTEAN: But preliminary flight radar 24 data shows the two planes remaining on a collision course. The FAA says the crew of the FedEx flight aborted its landing and started to climb, experts say, averting disaster.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: FedEx is on the go.

PETER GOETZ, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: The FAA and probably the NTSB will interview the flight crews. They'll interview the tower personnel. They'll review the tapes and they'll find out where the mistakes were made. MUNTEAN: The National Transportation Safety Board says it is investigating this as a possible runway incursion. It is the same type of incident that happened on the runway last month at JFK. In that case, the pilots of a Delta flight were told to abort their takeoff as an American airlines flight taxied across the runway in front of him.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Delta 1943, cancel takeoff clearance.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Rejecting.

GOETZ: This underscores, one, that the most dangerous part, the most perilous part of the trip your often when the plane is taxiing on the runways. These runways are crowded.

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MUNTEAN (on camera): There is one big difference here between these two incidents. In that JFK incident, the weather was clear. In this Austin incident, this latest incident, there was thick fog visibility at the time reported at only an eighth of a mile, experts say that will be a big factor in this investigation, Kaitlan.

COLLINS: It is remarkable to see that graphic of just how close that was. In fact, we are talking about the second incident this soon. Pete Muntean, I know you'll stay on top of that investigation. Thank you.

LEMON: And right now, officials in Ohio are actively working to prevent an explosion from a train derailment that they warned could potentially shoot deadly shrapnel up to a mile away.

COLLINS: Also after a promising January jobs report and the Fed's latest interest rate hike, there are big questions about whether or not the United States can bring down inflation without triggering a recession. We're going to ask the Bank of America's CEO, Brian Moynihan, what he thinks.

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He's here live on set. That's next.

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