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Russia Adds More Troops At Border, U.S. Puts Troops On Alert; Is America's Economic "Super Bubble" About To Burst?; Judge Greenlights Special Grand Jury For Trump Coup Probe. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired January 25, 2022 - 06:00   ET

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


[06:00:00]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: The United States placing up to 8,500 troops on heightened alert for possible deployment to Eastern Europe, a Russian invasion of Ukraine appearing all but certain an imminent, and according to the Pentagon, the U.S. troops will be ready for any contingencies.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: President Biden held an 80-minute secure video call with European leaders. We are told they discussed preparations to impose, quote, massive consequences and severe economic costs on Russia if it invades Ukraine. Again, that's after the fact. The president said there is total unanimity between the U.S. and its allies, which frankly, there's been questions about and a concept that Vladimir Putin has been testing. The world seems to be testing President Biden.

Breaking this morning, North Korea test fire to cruise missiles, this is according to the South Korean military. This is the fifth sushasan (ph) this year by the Kim regime. We're going to begin though with the situation in Ukraine between Russia and Ukraine, all of Europe, the United States, in fact, the entire world is watching it. Matthew Chance in Kyiv with the very latest, Matthew, give us a sense of where things stand as of this morning.

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, John, hi, yes, the situation still, excuse me, extremely tense here in Ukraine, as those Russian forces still continue to build up near the borders of the country with 100,000 according to the latest intelligence estimates. There's been some, you know, pushback, some criticism, perhaps underneath the surface of the U.S. decision yesterday to allow nonessential members of its embassy here in Kyiv to depart the country. And of course, to order the families of diplomats to leave the area as well, basically, you know, criticism that there are 129 countries in Ukraine, they have embassies here, and only four of them, the U.S., Britain, Germany and Australia have taken any steps at this stage to downsize their diplomatic presence.

Yes. And the Ukrainian foreign ministry is saying this is a premature move. And something of an overreaction want. Ukrainian officials spoke to me last night in quite angry tone saying that look, for years, the United States has been telling us to stand strong against the Russians. We'll have your back. We'll be here for you. But the first sign of the pressure rising, it's the United States that takes the first step to, you know, to pull back some of its diplomatic staff, and that Ukrainian officials saying that sends, you know, a message that perhaps in the end, the United States will not stand full square behind its Ukrainian partner.

At the same time, a couple of things, the -- over the past couple of days has been an upsurge in the number of arms deliveries from United States. In fact, there's a big delivery coming in today, a shipment of weapons coming from the United States, including Javelin anti-tank missiles that's expected to arrive here within the next couple of hours. And so that's something that's useful in Ukraine's defense against any possible, you know, Russian invasion. Also, that announcement by the U.S. President that is considering deploying up to 8,500 U.S. troops in Eastern Europe that's been welcomed by the Ukrainians as well.

But of course, none of those troops would be bound for Ukraine. And what Ukrainian officials are saying behind the scenes privately is that look, you know, that's fine that the U.S. has the strong commitment to its NATO allies in Eastern Europe. But we don't want Ukraine to become a no man's land between NATO and Russia.

BERMAN: Matthew Chance, obviously new developments this morning. Thank you for being there for us. Please keep us posted.

We want to bring in Jill Dougherty. She's an adjunct professor at Georgetown University's Walsh School of Foreign Services and a former CNN Moscow bureau chief. Jill thanks so much for being with us. What kind of time frame do you think that we're discussing here? No one seems to be downplaying the risks or the threat or the real possibility Russia could invade soon but when? Would they do it during the Winter Olympics?

JILL DOUGHERTY, ADJUNCT PROFESSOR, GEORGETOWN'S WALSH SCHOOL OF FOREIGN SERVICE: Well, the Winter Olympics might be one thing. I mean, he wouldn't want to -- President Putin might not want to, you know, reign on the parade in China. But I think there are other factors, you know, this is -- we have this idea that kind of Putin has a big plan in mind and he well may. But there are other factors, things happen in United States in mobilizing or potentially mobilizing troops, things like that. So I think you have to look at the Russians in terms of what they will do could be a major invasion, it could be a major military operation, or it might be something else.

I mean we really have to look at the possibility, which did a few days ago seem a little strange, but regime change or ways of maneuvering to change the Ukrainian government. And then have it more in control of what Russia wants. There a lot of different scenarios here but I think Putin looking at what's going on right now by the United States and NATO must be thinking, you know, we are getting to a point here where we may have to act.

[06:05:13]

KEILAR: Well, what does he think? What do you think he thinks Jill, about this potential mobilization, this move to put on heightened alert 8,500 troops and this is saying to a number of American troops, hey, get ready to go to Eastern Europe to potentially be part of a NATO force? How does Putin receive that?

DOUGHERTY: Well, very negatively. Certainly, any move by NATO closer to the border of Russia is neuralgic for him. So he can't accept that 8,500 troops actually isn't that large when you come right down to it? They have, you know, more than 100,000. And potentially he could have like 175,000. So that's not what we're talking about. But these moves, it feels, I think, for President Putin, I don't want to jump into his mind. But I think it would be galling, to think that more NATO troops are headed that way toward Russia.

BERMAN: So Fiona Hill, who of course, worked in the National Security Office for a long time and knows Vladimir Putin and written about him more than anyone in the world. She writes, quote, this time, Mr. Putin's aim is bigger than closing NATO's open door to Ukraine and taking more territory he wants to evict the United States from Europe, as he might put it, goodbye, America, don't let the door hit you on the way out. Do you think that's the strategy?

DOUGHERTY: I think she's absolutely correct. I mean, they've said they want a new global security arrangement in Europe. They do they want a sphere of influence, especially when you look at those countries that used to be part of the Soviet Union. Ukraine is key among them. And there's no question that they want to roll it back to like the 1997, when NATO began to really move forward toward the Russian border, they want to replay of the end of the Cold War. And that's precisely what they want.

Now, you're not going to get it from the United States or from NATO. And, you know, you have to look, the diplomatic game we have this week, the United States is supposed to be giving a written answer to Russia to those demands. And we know the United States is not going to say, hey, we agree, we will sign on the dotted line. So what does President Putin get, I mean that proposals by the United States keep about arms control, more transparency in Europe, military maneuvers, he could have gotten those, you know, a half year ago.

So I go back to this and we're all trying to figure it out. But I do go back that it's the big picture. And if President Putin can't get the big picture, then what does he do? It's really monumental stakes.

BERMAN: Yes, it is my -- you know, the possibility of a land war in Europe, absolutely Monumental stakes. Jill Dougherty, thank you so much for being with us this morning.

KEILAR: It was a wild day on Wall Street Monday with big losses before a dramatic rebound but could the market's recent drops signal the end of a so called super bubble for stocks. Chief business correspondent Christine Romans has the details. You tell us Christine.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Oh my. What an insane day on Wall Street. But this is a technical -- a Romans technical term. It's been simply wild. The Dow in free fall down more than 1,000 points then roars back to close higher, the S&P 500 also closes higher, the NASDAQ down almost 5 percent at its low, that's a big one day move. Turned around then gained six tenths of a percent. Welcome to rocky volatile 2022 on Wall Street. Guys, if you haven't checked your 401(k) lately, here's the damage report. The NASDAQ is in a correction that means it's down more than 10 percent from its recent high. The S&P is down more than 8 percent from its record, the Dow down 6.6 percent.

Look, periodic corrections. They are normal and they are healthy. Stocks can't go up forever. But there's something that's more ominous people are talking about, this so called super bubble. There's a hedge fund managers warning of extreme overvaluation with stocks he says headed for a big reset so inflated guys, it's spawning these dodgy cryptocurrencies and crazy meme stocks. That's a sign of a super bubble. He cited two other examples, 1929, what happened then, the market fall and then led to the big Great Depression and 2,000 when the.com bubble burst.

Look, there's no crystal ball. But there's no question 2022 is rife with challenges. There's tensions in Ukraine, 100,000 Russian troops on its border, corporate earnings have been so good, they're now bound to be more mixed. Inflation is running the hottest in decades. Fighting inflation means a new era of higher interest rates from the Federal Reserve, those higher rates eat into corporate profits and they devalue high worth stocks.

Guys, the Feds easy money policies have soon supercharged stocks during the pandemic. This is where we've come from, right? All three major averages of double digit since March 2020, now the Fed has started cutting its stimulus. We're going to get more from the Fed and a policy update later this week, that meeting starts today.

[06:10:13]

But guys, we're in a new era here. And I've been kind of screaming this from the rooftop for a couple of months here, 2021 was easy money for investors. So was 2020, right? I mean, what has been terrible a terrible experience for Main Street has been very, very good for Wall Street. Things are changing this year.

KEILAR: That is scary, Christine.

ROMANS: I know.

KEILAR: Don't check my 401(k) is that what you're saying? Don't check it.

ROMANS: No, yes. I mean don't, listen, yesterday is a very good reminder. Don't spy yourself stocks on a day like yesterday. That's just, it's just crazy.

KEILAR: Yes, yes.

ROMANS: Just sit back. Make sure you're balanced for your, you know, for your age and for your goals and just relax.

KEILAR: I relax by not checking. So I've taken your advice already. Christine Romans, thank you. Ignorance is bliss.

All right, coming up, former President Trump has Georgia on his mind, what a judge just did in Fulton County that is adding more trouble to his legal woes?

Plus big breaking news out of the U.K., police are now investigating Boris Johnson's boozy parties during lockdown as yet another one is revealed.

BERMAN: And more breaking news, Israel now recommending a fourth vaccine dose for all adults. The details and whether this is realistic or frankly even needed in the United States ahead.

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[06:15:39]

KEILAR: Former President Trump is facing a growing legal peril in Georgia. And Atlanta area district attorney has been given the green light to see a special grand jury in her criminal investigation of Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election results in the state where Joe Biden won. This is the only known criminal case that focuses squarely on Trump's election interference. And the DA Fani Willis says that she expects to decide on whether to bring charges against Trump in the first half of this year. Joining us now is CNN political correspondent Sara Murray and former U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Georgia, Michael Moore. Sara to you first, just take us through this. And it's so significant because as we mentioned, this is the one case about this.

SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: It is significant, you know, and it's been going on for about a year. And so now she's making this move to see the special grand jury, it's been approved. It's going to give her a lot more powers in order to be able to subpoena witnesses to gather more evidence. You know, she made it clear when she was asking for this special grand jury that a number of witnesses have been reluctant to speak with her without a subpoena. She even pointed to Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who we know, you know, his office has given her already a bunch of documents, interviews with staff, but it makes it very clear she wants to hear from firsthand witnesses. She wants their testimony in front of a grand jury.

And, you know, it suggests that she's inching towards this question of, you know, do I bring potential criminal charges against Donald Trump or against others who are helping him in his pursuit to overturn the Georgia election results?

BERMAN: You know, Michael, counselor, what should worry Donald Trump the most here? Where is his specific legal jeopardy?

MICHAEL MOORE, FORMER U.S. ATTORNEY, MIDDLE DISTRICT OF GEORGIA: Well, I don't think there's any question that there's some good evidence that he tried to interfere with the election and certainly to influenced Brad Raffensperger that's on tape, you know. So I think that's a pretty clear case. And frankly, a fairly straightforward case that I'm not sure that a special grand jury would be needed for, she could simply subpoena people to a criminal grand jury and move the case forward there.

It looks like what she's trying to do is maybe broaden out the case to include some Rico allegations, conspiracy allegations, or otherwise to get people out, that are in Trump's circle, or at least in the maybe the campaign circle, or the party circle there. The fear for him at that point is that suddenly people, you know, they start turning their guns on each other, to sort of use an analogy, and that is that you're going to have people saying, well, wait a minute, you know, I don't want to go to jail. This is what I was doing, and who told me to do it and why. So, you know, anytime you broaden out investigation, then that's certainly something that poses some risk for a primary target, which I would argue he is here.

KEILAR: Because to that point, Sara, I mean, this prosecutor has made it clear, she's looking, her team is looking at a number of things, including Rudy Giuliani, and also Lindsey Graham, who of course, made that call to Brad Raffensperger about votes.

MURRAY: Oh, absolutely. I mean, I think that they feel like there is really this narrative to tell about how Donald Trump was not working alone. And it was not just this singular call, you know, he had with Brad Raffensperger, asking Raffensperger to find the votes in Georgia that this was sort of a coordinated campaign, and that there were a number of people who were around the former president who were trying to make this happen. And so I think that, you know, to Michael's point, that's the kind of argument that they are going to try to, I think make before the grand jury and the kind of evidence they're going to want to hear.

BERMAN: Michael, there was a legal ruling on the entire different end of the country right now. A California federal judge ruled that John Eastman, who was a lawyer for Donald Trump, when he was president or doing some legal work for him, the court ruled, the Eastman was going to turn over his e-mails and documents from the account, the school account where he worked, he was working at a college there, they rule that he has to turn over all those e-mails, there are thousands and thousands and thousands of them, how problematic is that for Eastman?

MOORE: Well, it's problematic. It's also a little bit unusual when you have a lawyer that's been forced to turn over e-mails. But what's interesting here is that the judge has set up a process where those e- mails will be reviewed for protected information. So attorney-client specific information, but what he the judge is not going to do it appears is to allow the lawyer to hide behind that when he may have been coordinating other efforts with other individuals like talking to state legislators of course and those kinds of things. So, it again, it's unusual to have a lawyer's e-mail turned over but there are some rules about whether or not you can use that argument to hide behind -- or to hide things, you know, to continue to cover things up. And so I think that's what you're seeing. And the judge is very clear, he wants a quick process. He was not buying into any of the arguments that the committee didn't have the authority to do this. And so we're clearly wanting to move forward.

[06:20:21]

BERMAN: Yes, court after court has ruled there isn't much privilege here, whether it involves the actions being investigated around the insurrection. Michael Moore, Sara Murray, thank you both very much.

MOORE: Glad to be with you.

BERMAN: Breaking news from the United Kingdom, this could be really serious, the police in London investigating Boris Johnson now for the parties that were held at 10 Downing Street during lockdown.

KEILAR: Was that cake worth it? We'll see. And students in Flint public schools will remain at home indefinitely. How struggling parents are coping with remote learning, next.

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[06:25:08]

BERMAN: All right breaking news out of the United Kingdom this morning, the Prime Minister Boris Johnson, could he be in trouble with the law? The London Metropolitan Police announced investigations of a number of events that took place at 10 Downing Street over the last two years, while the United Kingdom was under strict COVID lockdown. This includes birthday party, a birthday party for the prime minister in June of 2020. CNN's Scott McLean, in London with the very latest from the political peril to now possibly legal peril, Scott.

SCOTT MCLEAN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, John, this is significant because the London Metropolitan Police, John, up until this point have said that it is not their policy to retroactively go back and investigate COVID breaches, there's simply too many of them. It's not a good use of their resources. But today, the chief of the police said that they have been investigating the most fragrant -- flagrant breaches and based on new information that includes several events at Downing Street. And what the chief said, to justify this investigation, the criteria she said that she was using to justify this investigation is pretty telling. It includes evidence that the people involved knew or ought to have known that they were breaking the rules hard to claim ignorance when of course you're making them and there was very clearly no reasonable defense.

Now, if the prime minister here is found to be in violation of these COVID rules, I mean the penalty would be a fine for him to pay or maybe several fines for him to pay. The much bigger worry for the Prime Minister is that it would leave no doubt that he had in fact broken the very rules that he was making. And that may convince some MPs to call for a confidence vote on his leadership. Certainly these new allegations that you mentioned, John, they don't help either. ITV News is reporting that there were two birthday party events held for the Prime Minister one with up to 30 staff where they cut cake and sang happy birthday and then another with some family inside of his apartment at a time when indoor gatherings were banned in this country and even outdoor ones were restricted to just six people.

Now Downing Street acknowledges that these events took place they just don't believe that they broke the rules, broke the COVID-19 rules at the time. Of course, the number of accusations they're piling up but certainly the public in this case is keeping track. Boris Johnson's polling numbers are have fallen well behind, the opposition Labour Party and the vast majority according to a new survey of even conservatives, John, say that Boris Johnson simply has not been truthful in all this.

BERMAN: Yes. And now this metropolitan police investigation opens up a new avenue parallel to another investigation where we may get the results from any day now. Scott McLean, thank you very much for that.

MCLEAN: You bet.

BERMAN: So this week for the first time here in the United States, you can pick up free N95 masks provided by the federal government, you can get them at your local pharmacy, and this comes as free at home COVID test kits are starting to show up in mailboxes. Jacqueline Howard, here with us with the details. So how can we get these masks, Jacqueline?

JACQUELINE HOWARD, CNN HEALTH REPORTER: John, I can tell you the masks are being made available at local pharmacies and community health centers and this rollout of the N95 masks along with the rollout of free at home COVID tests are really the Biden administration's latest effort to curb the spread of the Omicron variant. So with the N95 masks, some locations already have received them and already are handing them out some Hy-Vee stores and Meijer locations.

I spoke with representatives at CVS, Walgreens, and Kroger, they expect to have masks available later this week. Winn-Dixie, Southeastern Grocers are some other locations. What you can expect when you show up at your pharmacy, some stores have tables set up where the masks are being handed out. They're limited to three masks per person. And some community health centers are also playing a role in this. And John also at the same time, remember last week the White House launched its website where any U.S. household can order free at home COVID tests, well those shipments started Thursday.

Some test kits already have arrived at some doorsteps. Even here at CNN, John, some of our colleagues confirmed to me that they received their test kits in the mail. Remember, these kits are limited to four tests per household. I placed an order last week. I'm still waiting to receive mine, but hopefully mine get shipped soon, John. And some other households can expect theirs soon as well. John?

BERMAN: New weapons arriving to help in the battle against COVID even as the cases in hospitalization start to go down. HOWARD: Yes.

BERMAN: But they will help nonetheless, Jacqueline Howard, thank you very much.

KEILAR: Despite the Omicron surge in the past month, many school districts and major cities are pushing to keep the doors open. But community schools in Flint Michigan have decided to continue remote learning indefinitely and parents there are struggling with this decision. CNN's Adrienne Broaddus is joining us now. Adrienne, what went into this decision it was a tough decision?

[06:30:08]

ADRIENNE BROADDUS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It was a tough decision --