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Biden, Scholz Struggle to Show Unity Over Nord Stream 2 Pipeline; New States Ending Mask Mandates in Schools or Elsewhere Indoors; Fulton County D.A.: "We're not Here Playing a Game". Aired 5- 5:30a ET

Aired February 08, 2022 - 05:00   ET

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

[05:00:25]

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Good morning. It is Tuesday, February 8th, 5:00 a.m. exactly here in New York. Thanks for getting an EARLY START with us. I'm Christine Romans.

LAURA JARRETT, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Laura Jarrett. Welcome to our viewers in the United States and around the world.

We begin here with a showing of unity with a few cracks. President Biden and Germany's new chancellor, Olaf Scholz, trying to appear align on the ongoing crisis in Ukraine. But the two leaders struggled to hide their differences when it comes to a critical national gas pipeline connecting Russia and Germany.

During their joint press conference Monday, President Biden vowed that the Nord Stream 2 pipeline won't go forward if Russia invades Ukraine.

ROMANS: But the German chancellor stopped short of explicitly saying the project will be called off. That Nord Stream project is critical leverage potentially. Now, countries like the U.K. and France are focusing more on diplomacy trying to de-escalate the Russian military threat to Ukraine.

President Biden also advising American citizens in Ukraine to leave before it's too late.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I think it would be wise to leave the country. I don't mean -- I'm not talking about our diplomatic core, I'm talking about Americans who are there. I hate to see them get caught in the cross fire if they did invade.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: CNN's Melissa Bell is live in Kyiv, Ukraine, but first, I want to go to Nic Robertson in Moscow.

Nic, a critical meeting with the new German chancellor and American president and they are at odds it appears over that Nord Stream project. NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yeah, the issue

of Russia's threat to Ukraine at the moment comes at essentially a very bad time for Olaf Scholz. He's just in office, he's just kind of form he's sort of international relationships, this following on Angela Merkel who was such a known entity. So, he comes into Washington really under a huge amount of pressure to align himself with other European nations, to align himself with the United States on these extremely tough sanctions that have been promised President Putin if he invades Ukraine. And Germany has perhaps some of the biggest leverage because of this Nord Stream 2 pipeline. This direct pipeline from Russia to Germany built at huge expense for Russian companies that the Germans have sort of put on hold.

But President Biden being absolutely clear in his statements that there is no way that that pipeline can be allowed to be turned on if Russia invades Ukraine. Olaf Scholz on the other hand seeming to -- a little bit equivocate. Here's how he framed it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REPORTER: Will you commit today to turning off and pulling the plug on Nord Stream 2? You didn't mention it. You haven't mentioned it.

OLAF SCHOLZ, CHANCELLOR OF GERMANY: As I already said. We are acting together. We are absolutely united.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: Why won't you explicitly say, Russia, if you invade, we're canceling the pipeline?

SCHOLZ: We are much more -- as one step -- and all the steps we will take, we will do together.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTSON: So that hugely important meeting trying to sort of create that sense of unity. At the same time in Moscow, a meeting that wasn't very unified. In fact, you could really say that President Macron's visit here in Moscow with President Putin drew some of the most vile criticism yet publicly made by President Putin about the Ukrainian Leader Volodymyr Zelensky saying essentially that if he didn't do -- or essentially that he needs to do what President Putin wants to do on the Minsk agreement that there's been so much conversation about, about a lasting cease-fire with the pro-Russian separatists in the east of Russia.

That Secretary of State Antony Blinken says that Russia is not doing its part and Ukraine is doing its part. But what Putin said to Emmanuel Macron at that press conference they had was that Zelensky, the president of Ukraine should essentially -- let me quote you the translation here because these words are very heavy.

He said, like it or not. Like it or don't like it, you've got to take it. Roll over and take it, my beauty.

Now a gentle interpretation of that would be that Putin didn't mean it with the overtones that have obviously come across. This is the sort of language that Putin likes to use. In this case, he said the future diplomacy will depend on Macron's proposing are going to depend on how Macron gets on Kyiv. That is pressuring Zelensky to do what President Putin wants.

[05:05:02]

So, Macron arriving there today with Putin having leveled that vile language against President Zelensky and the Ukrainians.

ROMANS: Fascinating.

And a reminder, when we talk about these Nord Stream project, a reminder that Germany and Europe rely on Russia for natural gas. That is at the core of this as well, this sort of inability for Europe to be able to wean itself from those supplies. So, that's another sort of geopolitical layer, economic layer there to what is what happening diplomatically.

Nic, thank you so much.

Laura?

JARRETT: So, all of this as French President Emmanuel Macron just arrived moments in Kyiv where he will met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Let's go live to Ukraine and bring in CNN's Melissa Bell on this angle.

Melissa, good morning. What does President Zelensky want to hear from President Macron today?

MELISSA BELL, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, he will be wanting to hear more about the details of what was discussed during that more than 5-hour meeting between the French president and Vladimir Putin, with the leaders sources briefing this morning that more may have been discussed during that meeting than actually emerged during the press conference afterwards.

So, President Zelensky, as the rest of us, are waiting to find out more about the specifics of that and whether or not those points were simply raised or whether actual progress was made.

Clearly, this press conference can only go better than the one that never took place yesterday between the German foreign minister and President Zelensky. It was canceled we've heard initially because of problems of logistics, questions of timing. But a source told Jake Tapper yesterday, Laura, was that, in fact, it was canceled because, again, going back to that press conference, you've overheard the divisions between President Biden and Olaf Scholz because Germany would not commit to canning the Nord Stream pipeline was invaded by Russia. So, that clear disagreement between the two countries carried behind that decision not to hold that press conference.

Annalena Baerbock herself is now at the front line for a visit there. But, clearly, there will be more warmth between Zelensky and Macron today than there would have been between the Ukrainians and the Germans had that conference taking place. Emmanuel Macron praising President Zelensky before he left Moscow yesterday, Laura, saying, look, anyone who found himself with 130,000 troops on their doorstep would rightfully and understandably be nervous. President Zelensky has dealt with this with remarkable calm.

Clearly, the French believe some progress was made and they'll be talking about that with President Zelensky, urging everyone to get back to table and look at those Normandy format talks. They're due to kick start -- continue this week in Berlin.

In the meantime, of course, as Nic was just saying, we heard from President Putin last night. Some pretty difficult words accusing President Zelensky of not wanting to make any progress at all towards finding a peaceful solution in the Donbas, Laura.

JARRETT: A lot of different interest at play here. Melissa, thank you for laying it all out there.

ROMANS: All right. Now to the American job market and what's been called the great resignation. A record number of American workers quit their jobs last year. The numbers are stunning. There were 68.9 million employment separations last year and more than 47 million of those jobs were surrendered voluntarily, quit.

Millions of people have left the labor force altogether to take care of family, to retire early, to live off savings or to reassess their lives in the era of COVID. The challenge now: how to get them back.

Goldman Sachs economist did the math here. There are about 2.5 million people missing, missing from the U.S. workforce. About 800,000 of them retired early supported by rising home equity and stock portfolios.

That leaves 1.7 million people who theoretically can be enticed back into the job market. How? With upgrades. Millions of those so-called job quitters, they didn't leave the workforce, they landed better jobs -- millions of job hoppers snagging better jobs, better wages, better work conditions.

Bharat Ramamurti is the national economic council deputy director. He -- it turns out, he originally coined this phrase, the great upgrade.

JARRETT: I thought it was you.

ROMANS: No, it wasn't me. But I've been hearing it a lot. Workers are quitting to go to take new, better paying jobs. It's not the great resignation, it's the great upgrade.

There is a dog fight for talent in companies of all sizes. You have to be ready with better working conditions, better schedules, more clarity, more transparency, paid time off, right? Paid time off to go home to take care of your kids, better wages and even better professional development.

So, companies this year, outside of just the money, people don't want to go back to the old work/life balance they used to have post-COVID. JARRETT: And companies have to be more creative.

ROMANS: Absolutely.

JARRETT: And think about what incentives look like.

ROMANS: Even helping pay student loan debt, there's like 1/4 of companies are figuring out ways to pay student loan debt of their workers to get them to stay and not hop to new jobs.

JARRETT: So interesting.

ROMANS: Interesting.

JARRETT: All right. Just ahead for you, a wave of states now beginning to drop their mandates for masks. We're going to tell you which and when. That's next.

ROMANS: Plus, Trump shredded more documents than we knew. Will Capitol riot investigators will be able to get our hands on them?

JARRETT: And Oscar nominations out in a few hours.

[05:10:02]

So, who really runs the world, Beyonce or Jay-Z?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROMANS: The bell tolling at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., honoring the 900,000 people killed by COVID-19.

Even heartbreaking to consider, at least 1/3 of those deaths were preventable according to health experts if the victims had been vaccinated.

At the same time, there are signs that COVID is finally letting up. New Jersey, Delaware, Connecticut, Oregon and California all announcing yesterday, they will end indoor and school mask mandates in the weeks ahead.

[05:15:06]

Some health experts say it's too soon to drop the masks because not enough kids are vaccinated. Others say when circumstances change, policies should too.

Let's bring in Dr. Ali Raja. He's executive vice chair of the department of emergency medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital and a professor at Harvard Medical School.

Nice to see you again this morning.

The former CDC Director Tom Frieden told CNN last night that he thinks it's too early for states to lift those mask mandates. Dr. Leana Wen has strongly encouraged it, saying the science has changed. So, where do you come down, Doctor, on this?

DR. ALI RAJA, EXECUTIVE VICE CHAIR, DEPARTMENT OF EMERGENCY MEDICINE, MASSACHUSETTS GENERAL HOSPITAL: I think there's -- I think there's real data that we have and continue -- will continue to get over the next few weeks that are going to help guide this. I think we are ready to start thinking about lowering mask mandates. But it's definitely not something that we can do around the country, right?

This has to be based on the local situation in terms of new cases and in terms of what the hospitals can actually handle, because our hospitals are still pretty darn full right now.

JARRETT: But from a public health perspective, it's hard. I mean, of course, there isn't a one size fits all rule here and it makes sense that not all places are the same.

But you're a doctor. You're a parent, I know. If your school lifts its mask mandate today, are you sending your kid into the class without a mask?

RAJA: That's a great question. I'm not because I know our hospitals are still really full around here and locally and around the state. The fact is that our school systems around the country are looking to the CDC and other federal health regulatory agencies, to help guide them.

And they're going to follow whatever the CDC says. So, what we really need is good criteria whereby which local agencies can actually make those decisions, because otherwise, you have individual parents trying to gauge whether or not they should listen to the CDC or whether or not they should listen to their school board, and that's a really tough decision to make.

JARRETT: But, Doctor, is that to keep your kid out of the hospital or keep other people out of the hospital and protect them from your kid?

RAJA: Such a great question. It's because our hospitals are filled with mostly sick adults, not kids.

JARRETT: Right.

RAJA: It's because of the fact that I haven't had COVID yet. I have lots of patients who I see every day. I really don't want to get COVID. I don't want my parents to get COVID that I interact with. And so, my kid not going to school is not just to protect the other kids, but it's actually, that's a minor part of it. It's to protect all the other people that the interact might interact with.

ROMANS: I think so many of those announcements last -- yesterday from those states was exciting, but we should maybe slow it down a little bit. They're talking about pulling back those mask mandates. This is a new phase where they're trying to figure out the safe way to do this, right?

RAJA: And one of the important things is as we figure out a safe way to lower the mask mandates, we have to remember there were 2 million new cases of COVID around the world over the past day. And what that means is we might have another variant that causes us to bring some of those back.

So, part of the ability to have clear and specific guidance on how to lower those mask mandates is that we can actually see that if the numbers start trending up, when will we need to bring some of them back? And that is going to help us plan well.

JARRETT: Dr. Ali Raja, so nice to have you. Always great to have your calming perspective when there is so much conflicting advice out there. Thank you.

ROMANS: Thank you, sir.

RAJA: Thank you.

ROMANS: All right. Coming up, why an Atlanta prosecutor is confident former President Trump won't slow her probe into election interference.

And how a tight labor market is helping the rich get richer at Amazon.

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[05:23:01]

JARRETT: Not playing a game. That's the message from Fulton County's top prosecutor as she now ramps up her investigation into Donald Trump's effort to meddle with the 2020 election results in Georgia.

In a new interview with CNN, Fani Willis is confident the former president can't slow down justice.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Are you worried that former President Trump could somehow be able to avoid, delay, you know, what's going on with your investigation?

FANI WILLIS, FULTON COUNTY, GEORGIA DISTRICT ATTORNEY: No.

MURRAY: Why is that? What gives you that confidence?

MURRAY: This is a criminal investigation. We're not here playing a game. I plan to use the power of the law. We are all citizens.

Mr. Trump just as every other American citizen is entitled to dignity. He's entitled to be treated fairly. He will be treated fairly in this jurisdiction.

But I plan to do my job, and my job is to make sure that we get the evidence that give us the truth. I'm not concerned at all about games to delay this.

(END VIDEO CLIP) JARRETT: Let's bring in Michael Zeldin, former federal prosecutor and host of the podcast "That Said with Michael Zeldin."

Michael, good morning.

What do you think is giving Willis so much confidence in potentially charging a former president? She's not saying she's going to charge him, but she's at least saying I'm intending to move forward with this investigation. What do you think is giving her so much confidence when the case law on this is arguably less than settled?

MICHAEL ZELDIN, FORMER FEDERAL PROSECUTOR: Well, she has a special ground jury. She's going to be able to subpoena documents and people so that she can really get to the bottom of what's going on here.

The president has no legal basis to object to this investigation. He has no basis so avoid criminal indictment if he in fact committed a crime. So, all of the cards favor her be able to, as she said, get to the truth of the matter. Then we'll have to see, Laura, whether or not there is a criminal charge that can be level.

JARRETT: Yeah, and that grand jury, that special jury, I should mention, going to be seated on May 2nd. So, we will see more, as she says, in the coming weeks, pretty soon after that.

[05:25:02]

So that's what's going on in Georgia. I want to ask you what's going on in Washington with the January 6th investigation. The National Archives had to go down to Mar-a-Lago to fetch something like 15 boxes of White House documents that it was supposed to turn over to the January 6th committee and this included documents that he tore up. He apparently had a penchant for just ripping things up in the cores. Know the intent to deny the documents to me, that would be a serious matter. It would be obstruction of some sort. If it is really just that he has a pattern of ripping things up in the cores.

You're a former prosecutor, how would be view that type of behavior?

ZELDIN: Well, we'd have to see what that the documents are, and if it is that he ripped up documents, that would be relevant in my discussion, with the intent to deny those documents to me, then that would be a very serious matter. It would be obstruction of some sort.

So, if it really just that he has a pattern of ripping up things that he doesn't like to show that he's in charge and if the documents that he took are not really relevant to my investigation, then it wouldn't matter to me so much as a criminal prosecutor. It does matter, of course, as a citizen that he's not honoring the law of preservation so that the historical record can be complete about his presidency.

ROMANS: OK. So, to that point, though, Michael, the reporting that he was warned multiple times that what he was doing was violating the Presidential Records Act. So, doesn't that speak what his intent was?

ZELDIN: Yes, it does. But if the question is does this implicate him criminally? Does this show something that could be referred by the committee to the justice department, I'd want to see what documents there were that were torn up, and then I could try to figure out why he did that, specifically to this investigation.

Broadly, Laura, you're absolutely right. It's impossible to accept that behavior.

JARRETT: All right. Michael Zeldin, always great to have you as we sort through all of the twists and turns here. Appreciate it, my friend.

ZELDIN: Thank you very much.

JARRETT: All right. New this morning, a federal judge has ordered the U.S. government to pay more than $200 million to survivors and families of those killed in a shooting at a Texas church back in 2017. The judge in this case found that the Air Force failed to submit the shooter's assault conviction to the FBI background check system.

Devin Patrick Kelley killed 26 people when he opened fire at that First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs. It's one of the deadliest shootings in recent history.

ROMANS: All right. The great resignation or the great update has been good for employees at the top of the salary scale. Amazon said it's increasing the maximum base pay in the U.S. to $350,000 a year. More than double the amount. Amazon cites the competitive labor market as the reason.

These pay hikes for salaried corporate and tech workers, not hourly workers. Last year, Amazon raised its average hourly wage in the U.S. to about $18 an hour.

I think that's going to be the tale of 2022. If 2021 was the year of the investor, 2022 will be the year of the worker. Companies scrambling to figure out how to keep them happy and keep them retained.

JARRETT: It's about time.

All right. Still ahead for you, a big Hollywood star may finally have his shot at Oscar glory.

Will Smith waiting for this morning's big announcement, next.

ROMANS: And the controversy that caused a top Biden science adviser to quit.

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