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U.S. Shoots Down Fourth High-Altitude Object Over North America; Kansas City Chiefs Defeat Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl LVII; U.S. to Its Citizens in Russia, Leave Immediately. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired February 13, 2023 - 07:00   ET

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

[07:00:01]

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REP. JIM HIMES (D-CT): I have real concerns about why the administration is not being more forthcoming with everything that it knows, but part of the problem here is that both of -- the second and the third objects were shot down in very remote areas. So, my guess is that there is just not a lot of information out there yet to share.

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DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Yes. Good morning, everyone. Mystery wrapped in a riddle but serious stuff. So, the question is, what are they? Where did it come from? Three mysteries -- mysterious, I should say, flying objects shot down in three days by U.S. fighter jets. And now the White House is under mounting pressure to explain exactly what is going on.

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Also, we're tracking a major international development as the death toll in Turkey and Syria is still climbing after last week's catastrophic earthquake. More than 36,000 people have now been confirmed dead. As the public outrage is growing against Turkey's longtime leader, is the backlash big enough to topple it from power before an upcoming election?

Plus, the Super Bowl last night --

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The rush has come. Got to throw it as far as his arm can take it, which well short. And the Kansas City Chiefs have won Super Bowl LVII.

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LEMON: Let's see if I can do my Super Bowl voice. The Kansas City Chiefs are Super Bowl champions after an epic back and forth game. It came down to the wire, really. We're going to break down the highlights and the controversial call at the end. Lots to talk about.

COLLINS: Yes. We have everything there if you missed it. But we're going to begin this morning with something that has also captured the nation's attention over the weekend, which is. U.S. fighter jets being scrambled and shooting down three mysterious flying objects in just the last three days alone. The White House and Pentagon are now facing growing pressure to answer just basic but burning questions. What are these objects? Who sent them? They were all different shapes and sizes, according to officials. They were flying at different altitudes.

We're told that the latest object was shaped like an octagon and shot down over Michigan near Lake Huron. It was flying 20,000 feet up, much lower than the objects that were shot down over Alaska and Canada on Friday and Saturday respectively. It was at a lower than the cruising altitude of a commercial airliner. The suspected Chinese spy balloon that flew across the U.S. was 60,000 feet in the air for comparison. It's a lot higher than the other objects we've been seeing in recent days.

But lawmakers from both sides of the aisle are demanding more details from the White House, including the Republican chair of the House Intelligence Committee, Mike Turner.

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REP. MIKE TURNER (R-OH): We prefer them to be trigger happy than to be permissive. But we're going to have to see whether or not this just the administration trying to change headlines.

What we're seeing here is a number of announcements by the administration without any real information being given to Congress. This could be because they don't have any information.

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COLLINS: Our National Security Correspondent Kylie Atwood is at the State Department. And, Kylie, I think that's a good question. What do they know? Do they know something that they're holding back or is it they're not saying a lot publicly because they don't really know a lot?

KYLIE ATWOOD, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Kaitlan, it's pretty clear that they just don't know a lot right now. We spoke with some Pentagon officials on the phone last night and they put it pretty blatantly when they said, one of them, that they believe that this is the first time that U.S. Northern Command has used kinetic action, the military, to take down an airborne object in U.S. airspace. So, this is unprecedented. They're trying still to figure out a lot of the questions that lawmakers have answers to.

Now, over the weekend, President Biden spoke with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada, and they spoke after that object was downed over Canada. They both authorized the downing of that object. What they focused on was the need for recovery, to better understand the origin and the purpose of that object.

But as you noted just out of the front there, there were three objects that were downed over the course of three days. On Friday, there was an object downed over U.S. coastal waters around Alaska, then the one over Canada on Saturday, on Sunday, another object downed by U.S. fighter jets over Lake Huron.

Now, there is no clear connection to any of these and that Chinese spy balloon that was downed off the coast of South Carolina just last weekend, but the recovery efforts here are what U.S. officials are really looking at to try and learn more about where these objects came from, what they were doing in U.S. airspace. And we heard last night from the commander of Northern Command, however, that recovery efforts for that object that was down over the coastal waters around Alaska hasn't begun because the teams are still working to locate that object.

COLLINS: Yes. We'll see what happens when they do finally locate it. Kylie Atwood, thank you.

LEMON: There're lots to discuss now. Joining us now is CNN Political and National Security Analyst David Sanger and U.S. retired U.S. Army Major Mike Lyons. Good to see both of you. Thank you very much.

So, I'm interested in what you have to say about this, Mike Lyons, because you are saying that this is a wakeup call. Why do you say this is a wakeup call?

MAJOR MIKE LYONS (RET.), U.S. ARMY: No. I think it is. It puts United States on notice for this great power competition between us and China, this one at 60,000 feet, potentially.

[07:05:05]

This is high altitude airspace that in the past that the Chinese have encroached on before, in other nations as well, and we just kind of ignored it. And now we're going to have to put the resources towards looking over the horizon, especially areas in the north and Alaska, so to speak, if we're going to protect our country in a post-9/11 world.

I'm just still shocked that we don't have control of this airspace from 60,000 to 40,000 feet, especially in that FAA space with regard to what we know is going in there.

COLLINS: David, you have covered the national security space. Has -- when was the last time the U.S. scrambled fighter jets to shoot something down in U.S. airspace?

DAVID SANGER, CNN POLITICAL AND NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Yes. I can't remember one, Kaitlan. And, in fact, when NORAD took down that balloon on Saturday, or what has been described now as a balloon, I think it was the first time that NORAD had actually fired in a real live situation, not training, in North American airspace, which gets to the point of how unusual this is.

But this is a big distinction between the first balloon, the one that clearly came from China, and the three that we've seen now. For the first one, the U.S. actually tracked it as it was leaving Hainan Island in China and saw it go up over the Aleutians and then, of course, warned the presidents and they made the decision, right or wrong, to track it across the United States. These other three, there's no indication right now that they came from China. They're small size suggests they may have been much more local. We don't know if they were foreign powers balloons at all. And so that tells you that we've sort of got two separate issues going on here. The first is how well we actually track these as they come into U.S. airspace and understand what the sensitivity of our sensors are. Clearly, that sensitivity has been turned up in recent times the way you might turn up a magnetic reader in an airport.

And then the second is what are the conditions under which you shoot them down. And it's not clear right now that these posed -- the latest balloons posed a major threat other than to commercial air traffic.

LEMON: What is interesting, we had a major general on from NORAD who said, look, these have been happening for a while now. Maybe always happened but they've just tweaked the system that is able to track them. My question is, though, obviously, the fascination is it's because balloons, right, and it's flying in spaces with commercial aircraft. That is very dangerous. But China has said that the U.S. has illegally flown balloons into China's sovereign airspace without Beijing's consent for more than ten times in 2022. We spy on China. They spy on us. So, what gives? What is new here, Mike Lyons?

LYONS: Well, I think, first and foremost, we likely do. That we'd likely put these balloons up there. We're always looking for an advantage when it comes to communications. You know, what the balloons provide the military is kind of the skipping off instead of a satellite from the Earth's atmosphere, you get better communications.

So, there is no question that it doesn't surprise me at all that we've been doing that. It's looking to get an advantage on our side. Whether they're spy balloons really remains to be seen because we have the kind of technology that could read literally somebody's nametag in a fox hole down from space, if we had to do that.

So, again, it's important that we're in high altitude. It's important that we're in that space. And we're going to use it to our advantage.

COLLINS: But what does it say to you that they call the first one a balloon, as David said there, they're not referring to these as balloons, they're referring them to objects?

LYONS: So, what are they doing? Are they emanating pulsing signals? Are they relaying communications? What is the point? We don't know what they are yet. I'm sure -- the first balloon, for example, part of the reason why they allowed to track it because they really want to get inside of it. It was inoculated. It didn't harm the United States. It didn't do anything. And they used -- you know, made a science experiment out of it basically, which is why they convinced the administration to track it for all that time.

LEMON: It seems that it is, David Sanger, more transparency rather than more incidents, right? It's like the incidents you see, you know, on cell phones, there are more cell phones now, so people are able to track them more, to see it more. So, the -- should we be more concerned about these developments or is this good that we're at least getting more transparency now?

SANGER: Well, Don, you're right. It's one of the cardinal rules of intelligence is if you focus your systems on looking for a certain kind of thing, you're going to find more, because things that sort of you ignored along the way, and I think there's a good deal of that happening.

So, we have to fine-tune the system to both pick up what we really care about, not pick up what we don't care about, and I think probably have a little bit better sense of what we really need to go shoot down because these are pretty dramatic weekend, Super Bowl aside, of these shootdowns.

[07:10:06]

Should we be more concerned? I think that we're right to focus right now more on this because the Chinese government clearly has put together a very comprehensive surveillance system of which the balloons are just a small part. But I'm not sure we should necessarily panic about the smaller incidents.

COLLINS: Big questions still remaining about it but no two better people to speak about it with. David Sanger, Major Mike Lyons, thank you both.

LEMON: Good to see you both of you. Thank you very much.

Now to this morning, the Kansas City Chiefs Super Bowl champions, I was waiting for this part of the thing, so I had to do it myself. The Super Bowl champions star quarterback and NFL MVP, Patrick Mahomes, leading his team to victory over the Philadelphia Eagles 38-35. He threw three touchdown passes and even rallied after re-aggravating thinks ankle injury. This is the Chiefs' second championship in four years.

Coy Wire live in Glendale, Arizona, with more. If I could transport myself in like on Star Trek and flip with Coy, I would do it. Coy, good morning to you. Give us some of the highlights.

COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: Yes. I would like apologize to you and Kaitlan that I got the best assignment on the planet this week. I got to go to a Rihanna concert and a little football too in a stadium that has hosted three Super Bowls, all instant classics, the Giants' Eli Manning tossing to David Tyree for the catch to beat the Patriots, Seahawks' Russell Wilson throwing an interception to Malcolm Butler in the goal line as the Patriots beat the Seahawks. And now, this the Eagles' Jalen Hurts rushing for three touchdowns, more than any quarterback in Super Bowl history, but those chiefs, they scored a defensive touchdown. They pulled off the longest punt return in Super Bowl history, this game had it all.

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WIRE (voice over): History made at Super Bowl LVII, the Chiefs' Patrick Mahomes and Eagles' Jalen Hurts shining in one of the highest scoring Super Bowls ever and one featuring two black starting quarterbacks for the first time. The grass was an issue at times, players losing footing repeatedly in the first half. And Mahomes will get his ankle rolled up on, same one he injured a few weeks ago. The MVP writhing in pain. As for the slippery grass, it would have no effect on the halftime show.

Nine months after becoming a mom, floating on a platform high above the field, Rihanna pulling off her first performance in seven years and doing it with another baby on the way. A rep for the star confirming to the Hollywood reporter that she is pregnant during this comeback performance.

Speaking of comebacks, the Chiefs and Mahomes come out on fire in the second half with three consecutive touchdown drives. And with the game on the line, Mahomes took off on his sore ankle, grinding out a long run deep into Eagles territory and then the play Eagles fans won't soon forget, a defensive holding call on James Bradberry.

JAMES BRADBERRY, PHILADELPHIA EAGLES CORNERBACK: I was hoping he would let it go, but, of course, he's the ref, it's a big game. It was --

WIRE: That was all the Chiefs needed. Harrison Butker then kicking the game-winning field goal.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: For the second time in four seasons, the Lombardi trophy has a red and gold reflection.

WIRE: Mahomes being named Super Bowl MVP for the second time in his career.

REPORTER: How do you put all of this into perspective?

PATRICK MAHOMES, KANSAS CITY CHIEFS QUARTERBACK: It's hard, man. It hasn't even sank in, I don't think, even -- to go from a team that wasn't -- I wouldn't even say majority picked to win the AFC West to win the Super Bowl, that speaks to the guys that we have in that locker room.

REPORTER: How do you describe to us just how tough Patrick Mahomes is?

ANDY REID, KANSAS CITY CHIEFS HEAD COACH: I mean, he wants to be the greatest player ever. That's what he wants to do.

TRAVIS KELCE, KANSAS CITY CHIEFS TIGHT END: The toughest son of a gun you ever met, man. That Texas gunslinger ain't going to let anything get in the way.

CHRIS JONES, KANSAS CITY CHIEFS DEFENSIVE LINEMAN: Pat is a once in a generational type player, man. And sometimes he just stays so special that it becomes normal for him. And we just got to appreciate Pat, man.

WIRE: Head Coach Andy Reid further cementing himself as one of the best ever and was overcome with joy after the victory.

REID: It means a lot. I could kiss you right now but I'm not going to do that.

KELCE: Being at the top of my brothers and teammates is the best feeling in the world.

ISIAH PACHECO, KANSAS CITY CHIEFS RUNNING BACK: We're the best. We're the best.

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WIRE (on camera): Teams that were down by double digits at halftime in Super Bowls were 1-26 all-time but the chiefs are that good. They'll be celebrating with a parade on Wednesday in Kansas City.

LEMON: All right, Coy. I guess, are we still speaking to Coy? I guess so.

COLLINS: I'm happy for Coy.

LEMON: All right, Coy.

COLLINS: Even though he hasn't slept, I imagine.

LEMON: Thanks, Coy. We'll see you soon. I appreciate it.

COLLINS: All right. Speaking of people who have not slept, you're looking at live pictures of Union Station in Kansas City.

[07:15:03]

It was lit up for the Chiefs. They even had fireworks last night.

KCTV Reporter Joe Hennessy is there. Joe, I imagine everyone probably just went to bed a few hours ago. What has the mood been like?

LEMON: Did you get any sleep, sir?

JOE HENNESSY, KCTV REPORTER: I got only a few hours. Of course, you had to stay up and watch the whole game. So, two hours is better than an hour, 30, better than an hour, so you got to find some time, a nap is definitely on call later today.

But, yes, no, as soon as the game ended, the city erupted, in a sense. You started to hear those fireworks just go off. We're here at Union Station where the fireworks started but they went all the way west into Kansas, towards Lawrence. They had their downtown shut down. Topeka was shut down as well.

Here in Kansas City, of course, everyone rushed to the power and light district. And that's where you're seeing tons and tons of people go as soon as Chiefs get this big win, because that is just a great party place to go as well. As soon as that -- the field goal went in, as soon as the they were crowned champs, you started hearing horns honking and people making their way downtown, for sure.

COLLINS: I can't even imagine the celebrations. We still see the people there behind you, still up this morning celebrating that. I know that parade is going to be awesome. Joe Hennessy, thank you so much for that.

LEMON: You think those people were up all night? I think they were.

COLLINS: I mean, I would have been. When Alabama used to win, like we wouldn't go to sleep, like we would stay up all night.

LEMON: You guys were diehards.

COLLINS: I know. We love to celebrate.

All right, the U.S. this morning is now sending an urgent warning to any American who are still in Russia, telling them to get out and to get out now. We'll tell you what is behind that latest alert.

LEMON: Plus, inside Syria's quake zone, access only CNN can bring you. Jomana Karadsheh, she went there so she can share pictures of a growing humanitarian crisis with us.

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[07:20:00]

COLLINS: Leave Russia immediately, that is a new warning from the United States telling citizens to get out because of the war in Ukraine, which could lead to harassment and arrests, they believe, by Moscow's law enforcement agencies. All this is coming as the NATO secretary-general, Jens Stoltenberg, is in Brussels this morning, at the headquarters. He's going to be meeting with the NATO defense ministers and also the U.S.'s Lloyd Austin, who, of course, is the Pentagon chief and the army general and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Mark Milley. You can see Austin this morning as he was departing Joint Base Andrews in Washington, to go to Brussels.

CNN's David McKenzie, meanwhile, is live in Kyiv, Ukraine. This warning is coming as obviously we're seeing what is happening there on the ground. What do you make -- what is the broader, bigger picture that people need to take away from all of this, David?

DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Look, Kaitlan, I think one of big issues they're looking at is, frankly, ammunition. They need artillery shells on the frontlines to the east of where I'm standing, and they certainly touched on that in that press conference. The NATO secretary-general saying they're working, scrambling to get enough ammunitions to their allies here in Ukraine because there is no good having these artillery piece if you cannot shoot shells out of them. And you've seen a significant uptick in those frontline fighting in the east and Russia sending waves of mechanized brigades and soldiers at those defensive positions. Kaitlan?

COLLINS: And so when it comes to these meetings that they're having with the NATO secretary-general, I mean, what are the key issues that they need to tick through? I'm sure they've been having the conversations with President Zelenskyy, who made that trip last week to the U.K. and to France. MCKENZIE: Well, the key things they need to deal with is how to maintain the support of Ukraine while protecting NATO allies at the same time, and they touched that already. They said they need the ammunition to get to the front in Ukraine but not run out of ammunition, if there say worst case scenario in any NATO ally country, Kaitlan, and that, is important.

Meanwhile, you've seen over last few days very heavy fighting in the east. We have some dramatic video here of tanks and APCs from Russia driving through what appears to be minefields and getting struck by drones. According to the U.K. defense intelligence, they're losing more soldiers and casualties of more soldiers than any time since the beginning of the war. And certainly that pressure from the Russians is also taking a toll on Ukrainians. So, that's why they say they need more help. Kaitlan, Don?

COLLINS: Yes, all right. David McKenzie, thank you for that update.

LEMON: All right. This morning, CNN has its first images out of Syria following the devastating earthquake last week killing thousands. The sheer magnitude of the death, destruction and suffering in the war- torn country is simply unimaginable.

CNN's Jomana Karadsheh went there and visited a Syrian hospital to see the humanitarian catastrophe firsthand. Jomana is live for us on the ground in Turkey right now. Jomana, hello to you. What did you see?

JOMANA KARADSHEH, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Don. As you know very well, the situation inside Northwestern Syria, that last rebel-held territory of Syria, it's been in real dire humanitarian crisis for years now. Most of the people who live there have had to flee their homes several times. They've ended up there. They're entirely reliant on international humanitarian aid that slowed down in the past few years.

They've also been facing a very harsh winter this year, freezing temperatures, snow, rain. I mean, not only is it making life miserable for people, it has been dangerous. Some children have frozen to death in Northwestern Syria. And then you also have a cholera outbreak and on top of that the earthquake. So, it is a humanitarian crisis on top of a humanitarian crisis.

And we got to visit Syria this weekend and see the impact of the earthquake firsthand.

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KARADSHEH (voice over): Baby Mohammed takes every little labored breath on his own, no mom, no dad to hold his tiny hand. His parents didn't survive the earthquake. The three-month-old rescued by neighbors who brought him to this ICU.

[07:25:02]

In the room next door, we find Rhaliya (ph), the 26-year-old woman who will never walk again. The earthquake brought down her family's home and crushed her back. Her stepmom tells us Rhaliya (ph) her three children were under the rubble for 18 hours. The children survived but they don't know where they are.

In every room of the Syrian hospital, a bitter sweet tale of survival, many more should have been alive today to tell stories. Doctors say they tried to save them but didn't have enough supplies to save everyone. The few medical facilities in rebel-held Syria are barely still standing after years of Russian and Syrian regime bombardment that left them ill-equipped to deal with a disaster of this magnitude.

DR. AHMAD ALAABD, SYRIAN AMERICAN MEDICAL SOCIETY: We lost a lot of patients because of shortages in medical supplies. If we had them, we could have saved many more lives.

KARADSHEH: This was the scene here last Monday and in other facilities run by the Syrian American Medical Society.

ALAABD: This is the biggest disaster we ever had. We dealt with war injuries but never have to deal with this many casualties at once.

KARADSHEH: The people of this devastated land cried for help but no help came. Aid to rebel-held Northwest Syria is tied in politics and at the mercy of a regime so cruel even at a time like this. They dig and dig with their bare hands and whatever they can find, desperately trying to reach their loved ones. It's too late for rescues now. They just want to bury their dead.

Mohammed is searching for relatives, expressionless and numb, he tells us 21 of them, including children. Life here feels like one endless cycle of loss and grief. Most have been displaced time and time again by more than a decade of war. They're now homeless once again.

We were sleeping under the trees but it was so cold, we came here, Ansultan (ph) tells us. She begs the international community to send them shelters. We just want a tent, she says. I wish we had died with everyone else so we don't go through this, she tells us. We survived only to live this misery and agony.

They have nowhere left to run. Millions are trapped in Idlib. It's the last rebel-held territory in Syria.

Mohammed says that she and her family fled Aleppo province and came here. She says they escaped the fighter jets and the airstrikes and she says we came here and the earthquake followed us. She says, death follows Syrians everywhere.

700 people lived in this flattened residential complex, only a handful survived. Young men from nearby villages came running to help get people out, she tells us, but what can they do? They tried digging. We heard people screaming get us out, get us out, then they went quiet. They all died. Two days later, they pulled a little boy and girl. Their dead bodies were still warm.

Others made it after hours of this painstaking rescue. Little Ahmed (ph) was pulled out alive. The White Helmets, heroes of Syria's war, did all they can to save as many as they can. They urge an appeal for international support.

ISMAIL ABDALLAH, WHITE HELMETS VOLUNTEER: They didn't send anything. They didn't respond. They let the people here down and now the people here in Syria really know that now they are forgotten.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KARADSHEH (on camera): And, Don, on Sunday, a U.N. aid convoy with ten trucks crossed into Northwestern Syria. And I can tell you from what you've seen in that piece, that aid couldn't get there soon enough. But many Syrians will tell that this is just too little too late. And a U.N. official who is at the border, senior official, saying that the Syrian people have the right to feel abandoned, that we have failed the people of Syria once again and that this failure must be corrected as soon as possible, Don.

LEMON: And for them, sadly, this is just the beginning. Jomana, thank you for bringing us that report.

COLLINS: Also this morning, President Biden broke tradition. He turned down a traditional Super Bowl interview with Fox. Was it a missed opportunity? We have the editor-in-chief of Semafor, Ben Smith, joining us next to discuss.

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