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Winter Storm Pounding Midwest and South with Heavy Snowfall; U.S. Special Forces Conduct Counterterror Raid in NW Syria; Kremlin: Deployment Gives Russia "Reason to be Worried"; Senior Administration Officials to Brief Congress on Ukraine, Russia. Aired 5-5:30a ET

Aired February 03, 2022 - 05:00   ET

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

[05:00:29]

LAURA JARRETT, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everyone. It is Thursday, February 3rd. It's 5:00 a.m. here in New York.

Thanks so much for getting an EARLY START with us. I'm Laura Jarrett.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Christine Romans. Welcome to our viewers here in the United States and around the world.

We begin with an enormous winter storm stretching all the way from Texas to New England this morning putting 100 million people under winter weather alerts. This system dropping significant snowfall in parts of the Midwest and the South threatening power outages for days. In Jefferson City, Missouri, they're digging out from a foot of snow there.

Parts of South Bend, Indiana, buried under a foot and a half of snow. Temperatures there in the teens. We have two reports this morning.

Leah Hill is live in St. Louis. But, first, meteorologist Pedram Javaheri.

Hi, Pedram.

PEDRAM JAVAHERI, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Hey, good morning, guys.

As you said, this is a remarkable storm system spanning across a large area, home to about 100 million Americans, spanning over 20 states. And particularly this perspective, this frontal boundary here been in place for the last 12 or so hours, prompted in some areas already an historic amount of snowfall.

But really, the element of concern is what we're looking at moving forward. If you advance the elements we'll show you what we're looking at. The ice accumulations remain the biggest concern in this setup. In some areas, particularly a quarter of an inch or half an inch -- you know, with that amount of ice, power outages could be widespread. Interstate closures could be in place. As the elements advance we'll show you what we're looking at when it comes to the particular setup.

But upwards on a 90 percent of flights such as Dallas-Love Field into Dallas-Forth Worth have already been canceled going into earlier Thursday morning and you transition that up to the Eastern Seaboard, in the areas into the Ohio Valley. Even we're talking about Cleveland, into Cincinnati, these regions, 60 to 80 percent of flights. Very slow to move as it migrates farther towards the east.

Could see upwards of 6 to 12 inches of snowfall in the Ohio Valley. But the biggest concern remains the amount of ice that could a accumulate from portions of Texas to Arkansas eventually into the areas of the Northeast. By the time we get to Friday morning and into early afternoon, this front will exit stage right. When it happens, that's when you begin to see it accumulate. We don't think it's going to be as big of an event as we saw last week with the nor'easter. The impacts are going to be wide-reaching by the time we get to Friday, guys.

ROMANS: All right. Pedram, thank you so much for that.

Let's get a firsthand look at the storm conditions right now. We got meteorologist Leah Hill from CNN St. Louis affiliate KMOV TV. Right there in the middle of it for us.

It looks pretty. What's it like on the ground there? Pedram is saying ice is a big concern.

LEAH HILL, KMOV-TV METEOROLOGIST: Ice has been a big concern, especially with the first wave of precipitation that we saw yesterday. It was a transition zone that we were in. Initially the situation was freezing rain, then we had a changeover to sleet and about two inches of snow fell. We are in the midst of that second wave of snow that we will be seeing today. It's going to continue to fall for part of the afternoon.

Just want to clear off and show you how much is ready. The plaza, the arch you can't see me. It is behind me. We are measuring an inch of snow.

If you dig under this, that is where you see that ice, it is making the roadways slick, making it a difficult job for the snowplows. When they pick all of this up, now they're just revealing that layer of ice. Things could still become slick.

They did have some opportunities to pre-treat those roads overnight after we finish that transition, and they just got the snow falling throughout the day. They have been able to be on top of this. As people are heading out today, there will be another issue. It will be an issue where they're going to be driving on the snow packed roads.

The heaviest snow that we're going to be seeing with this whole system, that's what's going to be falling down, and that's what we're tracking out here. And it's expected within the St. Louis City limits. We had another two, upwards of four inches, and areas down to the south, they get the heavier bands of snow. They're going to be seeing upwards of six inches of snow at times.

Live here at Kenrick Plaza in St. Louis, Leah Hill.

ROMANS: All right. Thank you, Leah.

A hundred million people in the path of the storm, be careful, everybody, today -- Laura.

JARRETT: Breaking news this morning, the Pentagon says U.S. Special Forces conducted some kind of counterterrorism mission in northwest Syria overnight.

[05:05:06]

CNN's Jomana Karadsheh joins us live from Abu Dhabi with the very latest.

Jomana, what more do we know?

JOMANA KARADSHEH, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Laura, very little coming from the U.S. military. The Pentagon overnight releasing a very short statement saying that they conducted -- U.S. Special Forces conducted a quote, unquote, successful counterterrorism mission in northwestern Syria, saying there were no U.S. casualties, no mention of the target of this operation.

And more importantly, no mention of civilian casualties in this operation, in the past couple of hours, we have received devastating reports from on the ground in northwestern Syria where the rescue group, the white helmets, reporting at least 13 people including six children and four women they say were killed in this -- in the clashes and fighting that took place during this operation. Eyewitnesses on the ground saying that this is an operation that lasted hours.

So, we're going to have to wait and see what the Pentagon has to say about this quote, unquote, successful operation and these reports and images that we're getting of civilian casualties and whatever unfolded there on the ground.

Laura, it's not unusual for the U.S. military to carry out operations, counterterrorism operations there. We have seen this where they have carried out airstrikes, drone strikes, targeting members of extremists, jihadist groups, including al Qaeda affiliate there on the ground, known to be active in the area.

But I think something on this scale where we're talking about U.S. Special Forces, at least publicly, we have not seen anything like this on this scale since the killing of Abu Bakr Baghdadi, the leader of ISIS, back in 2019. So, it seems to be a significant operation, Laura.

JARRETT: More to come on this for sure.

Jomana, thank you for your reporting. ROMANS: All right. U.S. forces are shipping out to Eastern Europe to counterbalance more than the 100,000 Russian troops along the border with Ukraine.

CNN first to report, President Biden has signed off on deploying 3,000 American troops to Poland, Germany and Romania. Pentagon spokesman John Kirby emphasized these troops are not going to fight in the Ukraine.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN KIRBY, PENTAGON PRESS SECRETARY: This force is designed to deter aggression and enhance our defensive abilities in front line allied states. We expect them as I said to move in coming days.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JARRETT: Meantime, a Kremlin spokesman blames the U.S. for continuing to pump up tension in Europe and telling CNN exclusively the deployments are the best proof that Russia has an obvious reason to be worried.

Meantime, the FBI is asking the U.S. to report any uptick in Russian cyber attacks in our networks.

We have Daniella Diaz live on Capitol Hill and Fred Pleitgen, with U.S. forces in Italy. But we begin in Moscow with the international diplomatic editor Nic Robertson.

Nic, good morning. The Russians say they are worried by U.S. deployment. Hard to take that at face value. What does it really mean?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: They're saying they've been telling the United States for some time to cease and desist with sending weapons to Ukraine, with pushing what they see as tensions up in the region and the addition of U.S. troops. What Russia sees as close to its border they say is destabilizing.

And, in fact, the Kremlin spokesman today been sort of putting more meat on the bone of their response and saying that this is something that should be available for everyone to see and everyone should be able to understand Russia's position and this meanwhile Russia continuing to ramp up its deployment of forces inside of Belarus, closer to the border of Ukraine, to the point that the NATO secretary general who's called this the biggest deployment of Russian forces to Belarus since the Cold War.

Diplomacy, some of that in the air later today. President Putin will be taking off for the Winter Olympics, Beijing, where he'll meet with President Xi. They'll have a one on one meeting. They'll share a lunch together but also talking about trade, but talking about security concerns in the region here as well.

But one of the last things President Putin will do before he leaves here is have a phone call with President Macron of France. This will be their third phone call in less than a week. President Putin has pointed out essentially that he sees President Macron as potentially as an interlocutor here on the diplomatic track, saying that he hoped he was here in Moscow soon. Macron, of course, having a conversation with President Biden last night about the importance of sticking together and sharing their track of diplomacy.

JARRETT: All right. Nic Robertson, thank you.

ROMANS: So, in just a few hours, lawmakers on Capitol Hill will receive a briefing from administration officials on Russia, Ukraine and that deployment of U.S. troops.

[05:10:06]

CNN's Daniella Diaz is live at the Capitol for us bright and early this morning.

And, Daniella, who will brief those lawmakers today?

DANIELLA DIAZ, CNN CONGRESSIONAL REPORTER: Christine, Senate and House members are expected to be visited today for classified briefing from Secretary of State Antony Blinken, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, General Mark Milley, Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines, and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.

These are a lot of administrations officials that are visiting the Capitol today to brief lawmakers, and so, that's how you know that this is a really important day for these lawmakers to get information on what's happening between Ukraine and Russia.

But I really want to emphasize, Christine and Laura, that the situation on the bipartisan package and Russia is so fluid. You know, Senator Chris Murphy, a Democrat who sits on the Foreign Relations Committee, told us yesterday that Democrats are still discussing how to work with Republicans because there are very key differences on how they want to go about sanctions against Russia. You know, Democrats don't want to do anything unless Russia invades Ukraine. The situation continues to be incredibly fluid but we should know more after these lawmakers are briefed by administration officials.

ROMANS: All right. Daniella, thank you so much -- Laura.

JARRETT: So, while Ukraine faces the threat of a Russian invasion, the United States is building up its fire power in Europe.

CNN's Fred Pleitgen is covering this part of the story for us in Italy.

Fred, this is clearly designed to assure NATO allies that America will stand up to Russia's aggression. Will it work?

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think it certainly is designed for that, Laura. Also, one of the things that the military here on the ground is telling us and at sea is telling us is they do believe that it is working, that it's not just the U.S. out here, but also the U.S.'s allies as well. And what they're trying to do is they're to make the NATO alliance

even more cohesive that it was before. And what they've done for the first time is they put a full U.S. career strike group under NATO command for a major exercise. We were allowed on board.

Here's what we saw.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PLEITGEN (voice-over): The U.S. and its allies, in a united show of force, facing aggression from Russia.

The USS Harry S. Truman is in Europe, refining cooperation with NATO allies to make sure that the alliance can operate more coherently, says NATO flight officer Jeannette Lazzaro.

LT. CDR. JEANNETTE LAZZARO, U.S. NAVY: We just go out there, integrate, to different NATO partners, anybody who to kind of smooth the communication processes.

PLEITGEN: As Russia continues to amass troops on the border of Ukraine, the U.S. as they will further strengthen the NATO alliance. This is the first time since the Cold War that a full carrier strike group has been placed under NATO command. With ships from various NATO countries are flanking the Truman.

The USS Harry S. Truman (INAUDIBLE) longer than planned as the standoff with Russia intensifies, to reassure Americas allies the U.S. is fully committed to collective defense.

Russia has pulled together more than 100,000 troops near Ukraine, the U.S. believes. And Moscow could order and attack it anytime.

While President Biden has said he would not send U.S. forces to Ukraine, the Harry S. Truman, effectively, fortify NATO's eastern flank. Despite Russia's massive naval presence in the Black Sea, the carriers F-18 jets can quickly reach the area close to Ukraine.

The Truman's commander says that years of integration with allies are now paying off.

REAR ADM CURT RENSHAW, US NAVY, CARRIER STRIKE GROUP COMMANDER: We are committed to our alliances, our partnerships. We are able to operate, plug and play, anywhere in the world. From an adversary point to view, we are agnostic.

If we have a strong partnership, that is stronger than any individual adversary could ever be.

PLEITGEN: The U.S. says that Russia could play a higher price for any further invasion of Ukraine. And the Pentagon has just announced it will deploy additional U.S. troops to Germany, Poland and to Romania.

JOHN KIRBY, PENTAGON SPOKESPERSON: The current situation demands that we reinforce the deterrent and defensive posture on NATO's eastern flank. President Biden has been clear, the United States will respond to the growing threat to Europe's security and stability.

PLEITGEN: But the U.S. and its allies say that they hope diplomacy will prevail, as one of America's strongest deterrent forces remains on guard.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PLEITGEN (on camera): Certainly, some pretty strong capabilities on display while we were at sea. The secretary general of NATO also commended the United States for sending those additional forces to Europe, he said showed America's commitment to collective security. And one of the things that you hear time and again when you speak to officials off the record, they will tell you, look, they believe that NATO is stronger than ever and if there's one thing that Vladimir Putin has achieved unwillingly obviously, it is to make NATO that much more stronger, that much more cohesive and also that much better integrated with all of those forces working together, guys.

[05:15:07]

JARRETT: Fred, terrific reporting as usual, thank you.

ROMANS: Love the sound of the bells. I mean, Fred is in location in Italy and the bells out there. All right.

JARRETT: All right. Just ahead for you, FBI agents now zeroing in on suspects after dozens of bomb threats at historically black colleges.

ROMANS: Plus, President Biden in the Big Apple later today looking to take a bite out of crime.

JARRETT: And the former police officer who killed Laquan McDonald in Chicago, will the Justice Department charged him? He gets out today.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

JARRETT: This morning, a wave of threats at historically black colleges now under federal investigation.

[05:20:03]

More than 20 FBI field offices across the country are looking into these bomb threats, calling the investigation the highest priority of the bureau. There have been at least 19 bomb threats since Monday, the first day of Black History Month.

Let's bring in CNN national security analyst Juliet Kayyem.

Juliet, so nice to have you this morning on this case. The FBI is treating these they now see officially as hate crimes. What's the significance of that designation and how does that affect the FBI's search for these suspects?

JULIETTE KAYYEM, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALSYT: Well, first of all, it gives it federal jurisdiction. So, the FBI will have authority to look across all of these different threats over a dozen HBCUs in the course of 72 hours and determine whether there was coalition, coordination, and then, of course, the penalties would be higher if people are caught. There's some reporting out there that they basically know or some idea of who it is.

And I have to say, it doesn't matter whether it was a joke. I mean, for hate crimes purposes, it does matter whether there was an attack, it was a joke, it was just meant to goof of. What matters is the perception of the threat by the people on the colleges and universities.

JARRETT: So, CNN's Evan Perez, our Evan Perez reports investigators have in fact identified some people making these threats. Our understanding is they have not been apprehended yet. So, what comes next? Where are investigators? Take us through the scenes. Are they digging through their social media?

KAYYEM: That's exactly what they're doing. Because there are phone calls and there will be an online treats, there's going to be an online trail. Is it going to be a signal intelligence trail that's going to connect people, connect these technologists, reporting they might be juveniles, determine what kind of decisions, what kind of emails, what kind of coordination they had, because it's no coincidence that it's HBCUs, let alone it begins on the first day of Black History Month.

So, the investigation has to do with the online presence and determining where they are physically which is easy after that, because essentially this is a domestic case. The FBI knows how to do that. This is not that hard once they have a sense who have's launching these attacks.

JARRETT: Juliette, this is obviously incredibly disrupted and terrifying for the students and staff there. What's a school supposed to do from a school perspective? Go into a lockdown every time and act as if this is real?

KAYYEM: No, there's not. You saw such a range of decisions made by these different colleges and universities based on what they thought their threat perception is.

So, most people know about Howard University, you know, in D.C., a lot of these colleges, these HBCUs are relatively small. They're in rural areas, where most people have not heard of them. And I think -- so they're making different calculations.

I think at this stage, they're going to view this as a hoax threat, but they have to be on guard. And that's the success of these threats. I don't want to call them successful. That's why the fact that they're just threats doesn't matter because the schools have to respond.

It's not like HBCUs came out of nowhere, right? I mean, they exist as something of -- as providing an opportunity for African-Americans to be able to access an education that was so long deprived to them.

When those schools have to close down it's repeating, right, the very harm that brought these HBCUs into existence and success in the first place. It's a double whammy for them. They're both physically threatened but also that emotional toll that it takes on these HBCUs.

JARRETT: Yeah, such a great point not to mention all of the resources that have to be marshaled, to try to scramble to respond to this.

KAYYEM: Yeah.

JARRETT: Juliette, our national security analyst, thank you so much for helping us break this all done. It's really important.

KAYYEM: Of course, good morning. Thank you.

ROMANS: All right. To Chicago now where the former police officer who fatally shot 17-year-old Laquan McDonald 16 times is set to be released from prison today after serving less than half of this sentence. Jason Van Dyke was sentenced in 2019 to nearly seven years in prison for killing the Black teenager. He is being released after just over 3 years for good behavior.

The NAACP is urging attorney general Merrick Garland to bring federal civil rights charges against Van Dyke.

JARRETT: Well, a little over 24 hours to go before the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics. We will go there live next.

ROMANS: And Americans won't let anything keep them from their caffeine fix, not even big price hikes. That's ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:29:02]

JARRETT: All right. Twenty-eight minutes back here.

Just one day to go before the opening ceremonies at the Beijing Olympics. We are hearing from the president of China about what to expect in the next two and a half weeks.

CNN's Stephen Xiang has all the details from Beijing for us.

Steven, good morning. There is another world leader making headlines at the games as well.

STEPHEN XIANG, CNN BEIJING BUREAU CHIEF: That's right, Laura.

Russian President Putin is the most anticipated guest for the games because of what's going on in Ukraine, of course. He is expected to get here on Friday morning and likely spending less than 24 hours on the ground meeting Xi, of course. This is going to be their 38th meeting and attending the opening ceremony before flying out.

But he's actually coming here at a crucial moment as you know because the U.S. obviously trying to ostracize Russia on the Ukraine issue. So, he is going to seek and get reassurances from Xi Jinping on China's support for the Russian position. Not only politically, but more importantly, economically, that's why the two leaders expected to oversee the signing of several major investment and treaty deals. And this, of course, has the potential of reducing or even minimizing

the impact of these so-called crippling --