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Biden, Putin to Hold Call Amid Ukraine Tensions; Meadows Reveals Trump's Oxygen Level was 'Dangerously Low' During COVID Bout; GOP's Nunes to Retire, Join Trump Media Company; Sidney Powell Raised $14M Spreading Election Lies. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired December 07, 2021 - 06:00   ET

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

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to viewers here in the United States and around the world. It is Tuesday, December 7. I'm Brianna Keilar with John Berman.

[06:00:28]

Joe Biden is about to have what could be one of the most consequential meetings of his presidency, a 10 a.m. video call with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The U.S. intelligence community is sending clear warnings that Russia is preparing to invade Ukraine as soon as next month. Satellite imagery is showing a massive buildup of Russian forces, armored units, tanks, and more along the Ukrainian border. And about 100,000 troops are already there. A U.S. intelligence assessment finds Russia could be preparing to invade Ukraine with as many as 175,000 troops.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Meanwhile, sources tell CNN that Marc Short is cooperating with the House Select Committee investigating the Capitol insurrection. The former chief of staff to Vice President Mike Pence with was Pence for most of January 6 and has firsthand knowledge of the events that unfolded.

And days before the insurrection, Short was with Pence when John Eastwood tried to pressure the vice president into delaying the counting of the Electoral College votes.

KEILAR: And on the COVID front, the Delta variant is heading the United -- hitting the United States very hard. The average number of daily new cases up to 120,000, which is the highest we've seen since late September.

In the last week alone, 133,000 cases among children were reported.

Nearly 60,000 people in the U.S. are currently hospitalized with COVID, and nearly 1,600 people are dying every 24 hours. That is 1,600 deaths every single day.

Scientists are continuing to monitor this fast-spreading Omicron variant. The early indications from overseas suggest that, while it may be highly contagious, it may also cause milder symptoms.

Let's start now with CNN's Jeff Zeleny at the White House with hour top story, which is President Biden's high-stakes call this morning with Vladimir Putin. This comes at a critical time, Jeff.

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Brianna.

An absolutely critical time and, really, at a low point in relations between the two countries, just six months after their face-to-face summit in Geneva, Switzerland. These two leaders will meet by video call this morning at 10 a.m. here in Washington.

And President Biden's aim, officials say, is to try and de-escalate the situation through diplomacy with President Putin. Of course, it's an open question if that is possible at all, given the fact that there are 100,000 troops amassed at the Ukraine-Russia border. About 175,000 troops overall are expected to come, according to U.S. intelligence estimates.

Now, one thing Vladimir Putin wants out of this, of course, is to get a guarantee from the U.S. and other European leaders to not allow Ukraine into the NATO military alliance. But that is a red line the U.S. simply will not accept.

But the Kremlin this morning already lowering expectations. They say they do not expect a breakthrough from this meeting. It is simply a critical conversation.

Now, in terms of that red line, President Biden is also going to discuss economic sanctions. He had a call yesterday with European leaders. And really, some tough sanctions for President Putin.

So unclear anything concrete will come from this call, but, certainly, their first conversation since July. And certainly, the most important call President Biden has made in his long relationship with President Putin -- Brianna.

KEILAR: All right, Jeff, thank you so much for that report. We are going to have more on this with Alexander Vindman, key witness in President Trump's first impeachment, here in just a moment.

BERMAN: So this morning, brand-new details on the severity of then- President Donald Trump's bout with COVID, according to a new book by his former chief of staff, Mark Meadows.

"The New York Times'" Maggie Haberman reports, quote, "He described walking into Mr. Trump's private residence to see him in a T-shirt, sitting up in bed. 'It was the first time I'd seen him in anything other than a golf shirt or a suit jacket,' Mr. Meadows wrote. Trump had red streaks in his eyes, Mr. Meadows recounted, and his hair was a mess from the hours he spent getting Regeneron in bed. On the walk out to his helicopter, he lost so much strength that he dropped a briefcase he had planned to carry outside, where reporters were lined up to observe him, Mr. Meadows recalled."

Maggie Haberman, who wrote the details of Meadows' book, joins me now. She's a CNN political analyst and "New York Times" Washington correspondent. The author of this book, again, renowned left-wing scribe, Mark Meadows. MAGGIE HABERMAN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Donald Trump blurbed this

book. He's endorsed this book. He endorsed it several weeks ago. He has since tried to say, you know, parts of this were fake news, when some of this was reported last week and the fact that Meadows acknowledged that Donald Trump had had a positive coronavirus test long before they told us that he was sick.

Meadows then said, well, there was also a negative test. Meadows says all kinds of other things in this book. He called his own book fake news at one point a couple days ago, I should note.

[06:05:03]

But in the book, because I've seen it, and this is not fake news, John. Because a bunch of us knew this at the time and were told it was not true by them. Tried to report as much as we could.

He was much sicker than we were told. His oxygen level -- his blood oxygen level was 86. That's really, really low. He was, you know, talking about how he had lost all his muscle strength, according to Meadows. The doctors were worried that it might be a weeks' long hospital stay. So this is all really new information, or at least new information officially. There's some that we've reported at various points.

It's unbelievable to me that Mark Meadows is putting this in a book, for which I presume he got paid, after he did not tell the truth to the public over and over about this last year.

BERMAN: If you'll permit me, this seems to really tick you off. I'm not sure I've seen you -- this seems to tick you off.

HABERMAN: It does. Look, because there's a -- there's a -- there's a couple of things here. We know that Donald Trump has a problem with the truth. This has been established over and over again. Mark Meadows also has a problem with the truth. And that has been established over and over again.

And when you have a president who has this particular issue, having a chief of staff who has this issue, is a problem, as well. Whatever the complaints were about Trump's three previous chiefs of staff, this actually really wasn't one of them in the same way.

This was information about how sick the leader of the free world was. He was in very, very bad shape. I understand not wanting to create a panic. That is always something the White House officials have to deal with when they're dealing with an ill president.

But in this case, there is such an indignance with which the White House insisted we were all wrong, when we were asking about that first positive coronavirus test, about how sick he was.

And because Meadows releases the information that he wraps it in this bubble of we had to -- if you read the book, and I don't know how many people actually will -- but if you read the book, he sort of writes in there, Oh, you know, this is -- we had to do these things, basically, because the liberal media might say worse things about him, say he's in worse shape. It's -- it's a hard to process argument.

BERMAN: You said Trump blurbed the book here. Do we know what the former president, or how he feels about being described in a T-shirt, sitting in bed with his hair all messed up and red eyes.

HABERMAN: He was already not happy that Meadows had reopened this issue of the positive test, and so when it was taken, he told the aides he felt that Meadows was quote, unquote, "dumb" for doing this. You know, I don't know if he had broader thoughts than that.

But certainly, the reaction among former Trump aides last night on reading these physical descriptions that Meadows went ahead with was stunned. And there's no way that Trump is going to be happy with this. There's no way Trump knew that was in the book.

BERMAN: Stand by for one moment, if you will. Because I think Brianna is going to dive into more into the medical news that came out of this.

KEILAR: Yes, let's get the clinical perspective on just what all this means with CNN medical analyst Dr. Jonathan Reiner. He's also a professor of medicine and surgery at George Washington University.

OK, Dr. Reiner, 86 percent oxygen level. What does that mean?

DR. JONATHAN REINER, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: It means the president should be hospitalized. It means he was sick. It means that he had COVID-19 pneumonia.

And we know his doctors were essentially panicked about him, because they threw at him, essentially, the kitchen sink of experimental therapies. So he received Remdesivir. But he also received steroids, which the White House initially declined to tell the press.

And then they also treated him with a monoclonal antibodies, which were not yet approved by the FDA. So they were so worried about the president that they sought approval and delivery for this experimental therapy, because they feared for the president's life.

KEILAR: Regeneron in -- when he was in bed, to be clear. This was before he went to the hospital. What does that tell you?

REINER: Right. Well, Regeneron, the -- the monoclonal antibodies from Regeneron are a -- a very effective therapy for people, you know, who are sick early in their illness, who have not yet developed their own effective antibody response. So, you know, it tells me -- it tells me that they worried about the survival of the president.

But there's another revelation in that book, which describes the White House doctors, at some point, considering just putting him on oxygen in the White House and hoping for the best, which is shockingly reckless.

You know, the president of the United States was 74 years old and obviously, clearly obese. Obesity is a risk factor for mortality, as is age over 70. So he had multiple risk factors for dying of this virus.

Then they demonstrated that his oxygenation level, his pulse oxygenation level of 86 percent, which is dangerously low. Those should have triggered an immediate admission to Walter Reed, without hesitation. The president was in danger of dying.

[06:10:13]

KEILAR: And all of the lies here, how infuriating is that, knowing that you had White House officials, and even the doctor involved in all of this, pushing back on the real picture that reporters were inquiring about?

REINER: Well, that is infuriating. You know, if you look at the press conferences that happened on Saturday, the day after the president was admitted to the hospital, they all downplayed his illness. They made it sound like he was busy, you know, managing the levers of government when, indeed, he was on oxygen in the hospital, fighting for his life.

But what's much more infuriating to me, and what really angers me, is that the White House physician and the White House chief of staff, five days earlier, knew that the president had tested positive for COVID. He had tested positive for COVID with a sensitive PCR test.

Now, whether a subsequent, less accurate, rapid antigen test showed that he -- that he was negative, that would not have been sufficient to prove that the president was negative.

So the president, who was already symptomatic, tested positive for COVID with a PCR test. The White House medical unit knew that the president was positive for COVID. The chief of staff knew that he was positive for COVID. Yet, they hid that from the public.

"The Washington Post" estimates that the president exposed at least 500 people to the virus. We know that at least seven people tested positive from the Amy Comey Barrett even the day that the president tested positive on the 26th.

We know that Chris Christie, who prepped the president the next day, not only tested positive but required almost a ten-day hospitalization in New Jersey because of the severity of his illness.

And then the Trump team went ahead and debated former Vice President Biden two days later, three days later, exposing Mr. Biden and his whole team to COVID, despite assurances that everyone associated with that team would test negative.

And then one more thing. The entire Trump team came in sort of defiantly unmasked, and then declined masks offered to them by the Cleveland clinic staff --

KEILAR: Yes.

REINER: -- which was hosting the event.

KEILAR: Incredibly reckless, all of this. Dr. Reiner, really appreciate your perspective. Thank you so much -- Berman.

REINER: My pleasure.

BERMAN: There's some other big news this morning. Congressman Devin Nunes is leaving Congress in the coming weeks and going to work for Donald Trump.

Nunes, one of Trump's most loyal allies, will become CEO of the former president's new media and technology company. And by taking this role, he's giving up a potentially new post, should Republicans regain the House.

Maggie Haberman is back with us. It's not just any post. Devin Nunes is posed to be chair of the House Ways and Means Committee if Republicans take over. Look, I'm an old House guy. Chair House Ways and Means, it's one of the most powerful positions in the world, or it was.

HABERMAN: It was. It was.

BERMAN: So what's going on here? Why -- what does this tell us that Nunes is picking being CEO of a Trump company that barely exists?

HABERMAN: I mean, a couple of things. A, barely exists, I think, is the point. Remember yesterday, we learned that the backing of this company is under SEC Investigation, because they might have skirted rules around it. So that's -- that's one bucket.

Look, it seems obvious that being the CEO of a company, even if it is this company that is still in formation, is likely to have financial backing. There are a lot of people who want to give money to Donald Trump. And I think that Nunes is poised to get it.

I am struck that he is leaving, based on everything you just said, about how important that post was and how coveted that post was just for decades, as long as I've been covering House politics.

I do think there is an aspect of the House is kind of toxic right now for its members, even people who seem to sort of be impervious to it, like Nunes, who just want to get out. And so I can't discount that that's a possibility.

BERMAN: Also, it may be that, in Republican circles, being in Trump world --

HABERMAN: That's right.

BERMAN -- is a higher position of power than actually having a job that traditionally gave you control of trillions of dollars.

HABERMAN: I think you just hit on a really important point. I think the fact that Congress is now seen as basically, because of what we have seen over the last couple of months -- actually, I don't mean in terms of the in-fighting on the left, which really has been about policy -- I mean about kind of the trolling from a handful of members on the right, I think it just as stopped being what it once was. Maybe it will return to its luster at some point, but right now, it is

-- it is very much people sort of throwing food at each other.

BERMAN: Also overnight, reports that Sidney Powell, this -- this conspiracy theorist, took in, her organization, $14 million. So that's a lot of money to promote all sorts of lies about the election. Fourteen million dollars. What does that tell you, and where is this money?

HABERMAN: Well, it tells me a couple things. No. 1, it tells me that, you know, depending on what the bylaws are about that group, she has money to pay her legal fees. Because she has a lot of legal fees. So that's one thing.

But there are a lot of people who are willing to give money, in small increments and larger increments, to this false idea that -- I mean, she is taking it to a different place, right?

I mean, you have people around Donald Trump who argued rules were changed around COVID and that he -- he suffered for that. And, you know, they certainly had their chances to try to operate within those new rules. They didn't. OK.

There's those people claiming widespread fraud that, you know, isn't possible on the level that they're talking about.

But then there's Sidney Powell, who was talking wild conspiracy theories, about voting machines being flipped and a conspiracy involving the late Hugo Chavez. There are people to whom those kinds of statements appeal.

BERMAN: People with money apparently.

HABERMAN: Right.

BERMAN: Maggie Haberman, thanks so much for being with us. Nice to see you this morning.

HABERMAN: Thank you.

BERMAN: So President Biden about to hold a critical phone call with Vladimir Putin as thousands of Russian troops descend on the border with Ukraine. What needs to be done to prevent invasion?

And the Justice Department versus the state of Texas. Why the DOJ says the new congressional maps there are racist.

KEILAR: And Kentucky Derby winner Medina Spirit, who famously failed a drug test after that race, dies suddenly on the track. We'll have the new details on what may have caused it.

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[06:20:47]

KEILAR: Happening this morning, President Joe Biden is set to participate in a high-stakes video call with Russian President Vladimir Putin, during which he's expected to warn Putin about the severe consequences of launching a military operation into Ukraine.

Joining us now to discuss is retired Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman, former top U.S.-Ukraine expert in his role at the National Security Council as European affairs director there. He reported Trump's politically-motivated phone call with the Ukrainian president, which ultimately led to Donald Trump's first impeachment.

Alex, thank you so much for being with us here. I just want to ask you, first off, as you are looking at this situation with all of these Russian troops along the border, and maybe more to come here with Ukraine, what are President Biden's options when it comes to dealing with Russia?

LT. COL. ALEXANDER VINDMAN, FORMER EUROPEAN AFFAIRS DIRECTOR, NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL: Well, this may be the most important foreign policy day he's had thus far in his administration. And this week in particular is a pretty heady week. He has a democracy summit at the end of the week. He has this looming crisis in Europe, which a lot of our allies that are participating in the democracy summit are very concerned about.

And then, of course, this high-stakes call in which he's trying to avoid war in the short term, this looming crisis, but also in the long term. Because the belligerence of Russia just doesn't seem to be diminishing; it seems to be increasing.

On the other side, Putin is now considering his options. He's pretty keen -- he's developed the military capability to launch the largest offensive in Europe since World War II, and he's just weighing his options.

And this conversation is going to figure prominently in his calculus to wage war. And it's occurring on the 80th anniversary of the start of World War I -- of World War II for the U.S. And there's no way that the Biden administration is not [SIC] missing the symbolic nature of that, and what happens if you show weakness or if you show a lack of resolve and now you get drawn into large-scale war.

KEILAR: Well, so if you -- so if you were advising President Biden and you were preparing his briefing for this, what would you say to him about how he needs to approach Putin and what pitfalls he needs to avoid?

VINDMAN: So I think the - one of the most important things to do is to signal that the U.S. has a resolve to support NATO Article V, support -- reassure allies in Europe.

And I think one of the things that I would signal to Putin is this concern about threats to Russian security is being precipitated by his action. It's his action that's creating the security dilemma that's forcing a return of U.S. forces to Europe, larger investments in security in Europe, that he supposedly seeks to avoid.

But that's, frankly, probably not what Putin is -- that's a bit of a red herring. He's been talking about security concerns emanating from NATO, emanating from the U.S. They think the big prize for him is what's -- is Ukraine. He needs Ukraine in his orbit.

But in 2014, he launched a war. He thought he had bitten off large enough chunks of Ukraine to destabilize it and make it a failed state. He was wrong. So this is just a continuation of that enterprise.

He's now assembled over 100,000, maybe up to 175,000 troops to crush Ukrainian opposition. This is a, you know, Ukraine that's very different from 2014, much more capable of defending itself. But the force that he's assembled is overwhelming. And now, he's just determining whether he's going to use it to -- to achieve his objectives: pull Ukraine -- make Ukraine a failed state, pull Ukraine -- leave the option open of pulling Ukraine back into his orbit.

KEILAR: He thought he'd sort of grievously wounded Ukraine, right? And now, he's watching Ukraine actually stronger, slipping through his fingers. Do you think that he will invade?

VINDMAN: I think that there is a real possibility.

On the one end of the spectrum, the most benign scenario is coercive diplomacy. This massive deployment of forces to show that he's serious, to extract some concessions on the security front. This idea of, you know, a threat that NATO or the U.S. poses to Russian security, he could extract those and potentially bank those.

But what he's really looking for is a hands-off policy with regards to Ukraine. One that embolden -- gives him the impunity to launch a host of different ways to destabilize Ukraine. And he's looking for that kind of signal. He's looking for some weakness on that front.

[06:25:14]

I think the possibility of war is high, because he can't necessarily take the assurances from the west. He can't take the, you know, this idea that the U.S. will withdraw the -- kind of the support it's been offering to Ukraine. It's going to have a hands-off policy. That's not an ironclad assurance.

The only way he could achieve his objectives is through destabilizing it through military force. The question is, is the cost too high?

And this conversation that Joe Biden is having with him today, in part, is to signal that the cost will be extremely high. It will be extremely high from a sanctions perspective, from a way to further ostracize Russia and make it an international pariah, and to impose costs for Russia's continuous efforts to upend the international system.

But it's also going to have a cost with regards to magnifying the security presence of the U.S., just to assure the NATO alliance.

One of the things, I guess, President Biden has to consider is not just the short term, how to avoid this crisis that is developing, but long term, what kind of signals he sends to Russia. Does he send the proper signals to dissuade Russia from increasingly aggressive behavior? And I think that's where we are in the bilateral relationship.

KEILAR: It is a tall order, and we will certainly be watching this call today, as I know you will. Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman, thank you so much for being with us.

VINDMAN: Thanks for having me on.

KEILAR: Former "Empire" actor Jussie Smollett taking the stand in his own defense and presenting some pretty surprising revelations, but did it help his case?

BERMAN: New questions surrounding the infamous murder of Emmett Till. The findings of a Justice Department investigation.

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