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Officials: Snow-Covered Bridge Collapses In Pittsburgh; Star Wars: Ex-Astronauts Fear Impact Of Russian Tensions; New Tensions Between Ukraine And U.S. Play Into Putin's Hands. Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired January 28, 2022 - 07:30   ET

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

[07:30:00]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: The escalating tension between Russia and Ukraine has some former astronauts fearing it could spill over into space. What has them so worried.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: Plus, a lie about vaccines swirls between sports stars and members of Congress. So how did this start? We're going to take a look at the anatomy of disinformation.

(COMMERCIAL)

BERMAN: All right. We're getting some breaking news just in from Pittsburgh. We're getting word of a bridge collapse there -- a pretty major bridge collapse. We're told by officials the bridge was covered in snow in the area of Forbes and Braddock.

Now, keep in mind President Biden expected to head to that area today to talk about infrastructure. But again, this bridge has collapsed.

We're getting word of the smell of gas in the area. That's from the "Pittsburgh Post-Gazette." The paper says police, fire, and EMS are responding.

[07:35:04]

You're looking at live pictures from near the scene. Obviously, this doesn't show the bridge itself. But it is a substantial structure. Again, no word yet of injuries. It was early. Hopefully, there were no cars there. But you can see the emergency crews responding near the scene.

We'll get more information for you and bring you updates as soon as we get them.

New this morning, fears that tensions on the ground between the U.S. and Russia could extend 250 miles up to the International Space Station. Former astronauts tell CNN they worry the problems on earth could end the longtime U.S.-Russia partnership there.

CNN's Kristin Fisher joins us with this new reporting. Kristin, tell us what you've learned. KRISTIN FISHER, CNN SPACE AND DEFENSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, John, the International Space Station has always been so isolated from any political tensions between the U.S. and Russia during its 20-plus years in orbit.

I spoke with two of the NASA astronauts who were actually on board the International Space Station the last time Russia invaded Ukraine back in 2014, and they told me that no one on the ground in Houston's Mission Control or Moscow's Mission Control ever once even mentioned the ongoing tensions back in 2014.

But this time around, I spoke with about a half-dozen former NASA astronauts who say they're worried that this time could be different.

Garrett Reisman told me -- and Garrett Reisman spent about 95 days up on the International Space Station. He told me that he's worried that if this becomes a shooting war that the International Space Station may not survive.

But NASA administrator Bill Nelson told me last week that he's confident that whatever happens, the ISS operation will continue uninterrupted. Listen here.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BILL NELSON, NASA ADMINISTRATOR: Isn't that something that when our politics on terra firma are causing us to be at odds with each other, that the fact that us earthlings can overcome that around a common civilian space program and cooperate so beautifully in a friendly manner -- and this not just be recently but ever since 1975 -- it is truly one of the remarkable, remarkable stories of our time.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FISHER: And NASA administrator Bill Nelson is also especially confident because the Biden administration just announced back in December that it supported extending the International Space Station about six years to 2030. But John, so far, Roscosmos, Russia's space agency, has not fully committed to that. They say talks are still ongoing.

But, you know, let's just zoom out here and talk about worst-case scenario, John. If for some reason Russia said hey, we're out, and decided to pull out of the Space Station, it would be extraordinarily difficult if not impossible for NASA to continue because think about this.

Astronauts and cosmonauts, while they are up there, they share everything from electricity to propulsion, to food, to conversations around the dinner table, to exercise equipment, to even their own urine. Yes, that's right.

NASA astronauts actually go to cosmonauts sometimes and say hey, we're running low on water. Can we borrow some of your urine? They then recycle it, turn it into water, which they then drink and use to make food. As one astronaut told me, if that's not transcending politics I don't know what is -- John.

BERMAN: That is a pretty unique relationship.

Kristin Fisher, thank you for this. Keep us posted. I know you're watching this closely.

FISHER: You bet.

KEILAR: I mean, I can't even keep it together after that, I will tell you. The things you learn from Kristin Fisher.

So there is a new COVID lie that is making the right-wing media rounds and now U.S. senators spreading it.

On Wednesday, Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson said this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. RON JOHNSON (R-WI): We've heard story after story. I mean, all these athletes dropping dead on the -- on the field but we're supposed to ignore that. There's nothing happening here. Nothing to see.

This is a travesty. This is a scandal.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: No, really, there is nothing to see. There's nothing to see.

And here to fact-check this strange new COVID conspiracy theory is CNN Politics reporter and editor-at-large, Chris Cillizza. That is nuts, Chris. That is a U.S. --

CHRIS CILLIZZA, CNN POLITICS REPORTER AND EDITOR-AT-LARGE (via Webex by Cisco): Yes.

KEILAR: -- senator saying --

CILLIZZA: Yes.

KEILAR: -- saying something that is verified -- easily verifiably, totally untrue, and also dangerous.

CILLIZZA: Yes, Brianna. I went deep in terms of investigating this. I typed into Google "athletes dropping dead from COVID-19." It was very complicated. And I immediately came up with how this got to Ron Johnson. And I'll add, by the way, John Stockton, former NBA great who said 150 athletes have dropped dead.

[07:40:00]

So, in December, Gateway Pundit, which is a very pro-Trump website that publishes lots of things that aren't true, linked to a study from a site called Good Sciencing -- Good Sciencing, which essentially said oh well, there's all these athletes who have had myocarditis and pericardia issues with their heart and they took the vaccine. But the problem is it's just not accurate. Some of the people they

said are like Hank Aaron who -- the home run champ who at 86 died in 2021, but it was from natural causes, according to the Fulton County medical examiner. They name a guy, Christian Eriksen, a Danish soccer player who had a heart attack during the Euro competition last year but had not been vaccinated.

So it doesn't take a lot of digging -- it barely takes any digging at all to find out that this stuff just isn't true.

The idea that Ron Johnson would give it a forum with his -- you know, his stature as a United States senator, it should be shocking. It isn't given his track record. It is still appalling in my opinion.

Look, they should be forced to compensate all the time, and money, and resources used to fact-check it because the fact doesn't need to be fact-checked. It's just absurd --

CILLIZZA: No.

BERMAN: -- and it's dangerous. It's just absolutely ridiculous.

CILLIZZA: Yes, John. I mean, I do think it is. But remember, we're still in the middle of a COVID-19 pandemic crisis here. Yes, Omicron appears to have peaked in many places in this country but we're still -- more than 2,000 people a day are dying and the vast, vast, vast majority of those people are people who are unvaccinated.

So, you know, it's not -- this is not an esoteric discussion about the theory of what would happen if people were skeptical about vaccines. It's a very real conversation.

And again, being in elected office should be at some level about showing restraint and leadership. And in my opinion, Johnson isn't showing much of either.

KEILAR: No. And look, it's really concerning because he appears to believe what he was saying there.

CILLIZZA: Right.

KEILAR: Now, his office responded, Chris, the next day and they tried to pass off --

CILLIZZA: Yes.

KEILAR: -- his comments as a plea for transparency.

They say, "The senator has been pressing for transparency in government, especially in our federal health agencies, so that the American people have as much information as possible before they make healthcare decisions for themselves and their families."

I mean, nice try.

CILLIZZA: Yes, that's true -- yes. I mean, yes, I'm all for transparency as well. But what -- because I asked their office for comment on that, I was -- I can tell you I was very specific. I said -- the subject line of the e-mail said "Senator Johnson and dead athletes." And it said Sen. Johnson is making this claim that all of these athletes are dying. What is the evidence of it, and what do you have to say? I'd like to include it in the story.

And what they sent back was what you just read, Brianna, which is a fine quote, right -- no problem with it.

KEILAR: For a different question.

CILLIZZA: But it doesn't -- it doesn't address the question in any way, shape, or form.

Again, if you're going to make a claim that all -- all, in Ron Johnson's words -- all of these athletes are dropping dead or passing out on fields and courts across the country because of the vaccine -- gosh, you better have some evidence of that. And I can tell you having run this to ground, they're just isn't any evidence of it.

KEILAR: Yes, this is the United States Senate. It is --

CILLIZZA: Yes.

KEILAR: -- mind-boggling.

Chris Cillizza, thank you so much.

CILLIZZA: Thank you.

KEILAR: I do want to take a look at what you're seeing there on the right side of your screen -- this breaking news that we're following.

A bridge has collapsed in Pittsburgh. And the timing of this -- this is just hours before President Biden is expected to visit the city. We're trying to get a closer look and bring that to you -- stand by.

(COMMERCIAL)

[07:45:59]

KEILAR: President Biden warning his Ukrainian counterpart that a Russian invasion is now virtually certain once the ground has frozen later in February allowing the movement of Russian forces. This according to a senior Ukrainian official who said a call yesterday between Biden and President Zelensky did not go well. The Ukrainian leader disagreeing on the risk levels of an attack, the official said. The White House, though, disputing the official's account.

Let's talk now about the situation in Ukraine with Pentagon spokesman John Kirby. Sir, thank you so much for giving us your time this morning at such a critical point in this.

Can you tell us how imminent a Russian invasion of Ukraine is?

JOHN KIRBY, PENTAGON PRESS SECRETARY: Well look, I think it's very difficult to be perfectly predictive Bri, but we have been watching this closely now for months and we have said, actually for many weeks, that it could be imminent.

What I can tell you is we're not completely sure that Mr. Putin has made a final decision here, so we're watching that closely. And number two, he continues to add to his combat capability around Ukraine and in Belarus. Every day, he's adding more forces, which means every day he has more options available to him. And that's what -- that's what we're trying to discern is exactly what options he might try to endeavor to pursue.

Now, I'll also tell you we still think there's room for diplomacy here, and here at the Defense Department, we'd obviously like to see that succeed.

KEILAR: It sounds like the assessment, though, of imminence here is for February. Why has the U.S. assessed February for an invasion?

KIRBY: Look, again, we're watching this closely and I think we obviously believe that he has the capability right now if he wants to do something militarily. He's got plenty of forces to do that. We hope he doesn't do that. We want to see him de-escalate.

But I won't get into specific predictions here about what the timeline might be.

Again, we still think there's a path for diplomacy to de-escalate so that there isn't another incursion, and that's what we really are after.

KEILAR: So, do you think that Russia has Kyiv in its sights?

KIRBY: Again, I won't talk about exactly what scenarios might unfold here. We don't have perfect visibility into what Mr. Putin might be planning and what he might be thinking.

What we want to make sure we can do here at the Defense Department is bolster our allies and make sure that they have the capabilities they need so that we can meet our Article 5 commitments to NATO if it should come to that. So we're looking at ways we can bolster their capabilities.

You saw earlier this week we put on a heightened alert several thousand troops here in the states just in case they might be needed. That's where our minds are right now.

KEILAR: And I certainly want to ask you about that in just a moment.

Is that a red line, though -- Kyiv and other city centers?

KIRBY: Look, there should be no reason that there's any -- another future invasion of Ukraine at all, Bri. Nobody wants to see that. And I don't think that certainly is not going to do anything for security and stability on the European continent. There's no reason for this to devolve into some kind of armed conflict. There is and should be a diplomatic path forward here and that's what I think we're focused on. KEILAR: But --

KIRBY: But he has -- but he has capability to do any number of things if he wants to, militarily.

KEILAR: But it sounds like there's a tolerance on the part of the U.S. for a limited incursion. The question would be -- you're shaking your head no.

KIRBY: Yes. No, I don't -- I don't count on Putin --

KEILAR: There seems to be an imminence -- an expectations management that really is a possibility. The degree also matters here is the point that I'm getting at, John.

So would that be a red line for the administration if you're talking about --

KIRBY: Yes.

KEILAR: -- city centers and not just remote areas populated by Russian speakers?

KIRBY: I think the president has been very clear on this -- all of us have been -- that any incursion -- any -- another incursion into Ukraine at whatever level, whatever geography, whatever size and scale would exact consequences on Russia -- not just from the United States but from the international community. Nobody wants to see any incursion of any size.

[07:50:07]

KEILAR: OK, so you mentioned the troops. How close are the 82nd Airborne, the 101st, and others to actually deploying?

KIRBY: Right now, they have been put on a shorter tether. They've been put on heightened alert. Prepare to deploy orders, we call it.

So in some cases, for instance, some of these units have gone from -- they were already at a heightened state of readiness, like 10 days tether to prepare to go. Now they're maybe on like five days -- not all of them but some of them. And some are not quite in that state of readiness.

But what we're doing is just making sure that they're ready to go on a shorter period of time in case they're needed. There are no deployment orders that have been issued. The NATO Response Force, which is the vast majority of these troops that we put on heightened alert would be dedicated to -- that hasn't been called up or activated by the alliance.

So, I don't -- I don't have any imminence in terms of deployment orders from the states.

I will tell you, though -- you know, we -- you have tens of thousands of troops in Europe all over the continent and we are certainly looking at their posture as well and trying --

KEILAR: Yes.

KIRBY: -- to decide whether we need to make that a little bit more forward-leaning and whether some of our NATO allies might want some intrinsic organic U.S. forces that are already on the continent made available to them as well.

KEILAR: Before the invasion?

KIRBY: Well, we're not -- we're not taking anything on or off the table here. I mean, we absolutely would consider the possibility of movement of troops even on the continent, but pre an incursion. Again, nobody wants to see that happen.

But this is really about consultation with allies and partners and what their readiness needs might be. What their self-defense might need -- might be.

KEILAR: Moving stateside troops maybe before an invasion?

KIRBY: We haven't taken that off the table, Bri. No decisions have been made. No deployment orders have been issued. But we've been very clear that is certainly one possibility.

KEILAR: So you mentioned Russian troops amassing on the border. This is a trend. Yesterday, you said that they had amassed.

KIRBY: Yes.

KEILAR: You'd seen more of it over the past 24 hours.

Has that trend continued since yesterday, and how much has that buildup increased?

KIRBY: Well, I'm not going to get into specific numbers for the last 24 hours. What I can tell you is what I said yesterday stands. Mr. Putin continues to add combat capability and forces along the border with Ukraine and in Belarus, and he's been doing it at a fairly consistent pace now, here for the last several weeks if not last couple of months.

As I said yesterday, it hasn't been chaotic or dramatic in terms of the additions, but it hasn't been sclerotic either. It hasn't been -- it hasn't been too slow. He's doing it at a fairly consistent pace.

KEILAR: All right. Not very specific, I will say, there, Mr. Kirby on that. I was trying to get a little more specificity.

KIRBY: Yes.

KEILAR: I see you're not going to go there.

KIRBY: No.

KEILAR: These Florida National Guard -- this brigade that is in Ukraine. I think a lot of Americans might not realize there are American troops inside of Ukraine.

KIRBY: That's right.

KEILAR: There's a Florida National Guard brigade that is training Ukrainian forces.

Are you expecting to move them?

KIRBY: Well, again, we're going to have to see what happens here. You're right -- there's less than 200 Florida National Guardsmen that are on a rotational deployment. We've been doing this now for several years. They're advisers and they're trainers. There's not very many.

And without talking about where they are geographically in Ukraine, we believe that if and when we have to make a decision to move them out of there we could do it in a fairly expeditious manner. It wouldn't take very long. It's not that many of them.

We have not made that decision right now. They are still on the ground in Ukraine helping the Ukrainian armed forces.

Again, we're going to watch this closely. I think the secretary has been very clear that their safety and security is of paramount concern to him and if and when he believes it's time to move them, then we'll do that.

KEILAR: Germany -- obviously, different leadership, which it seems may be a challenge for the Biden administration as they're confronting this threat. Germany announced that it's sending 5,000 helmets. Germany seemed to think this was a good contribution but that was derided very much as a joke by supporters of Ukraine.

Has Germany been helpful enough to the U.S.? Has Germany taken a strong enough line here?

KIRBY: It's not about whether they're helpful to the U.S., it's about -- it's about the allies and partners trying to be helpful to Ukraine, and every country is going to do that in their own way.

I'll tell you, Germany is a staunch and strong ally of the United States, certainly with inside NATO but also bilaterally. And we very much value the contributions that they make to the alliance. And the fact that they host literally thousands of American troops on their soil --

KEILAR: Yes, but to -- my point with the helping the -- whatever Germany doesn't do, you know, for Ukraine, the U.S. then has to consider that in its calculus about what it has to do for Ukraine.

KIRBY: Every country is going to contribute in their own way and we respect that. These are sovereign states and they have that right and ability to do it. And Germany is trying to help and they are a great ally for the United States. I mean, we've got troops there now.

[07:55:00 And look, I mean, I think everybody -- people might have different perspectives about what they're seeing on the ground and, sort of, what their sense of what Mr. Putin might do and might not do.

But I can tell you that the alliance is unified in the concern over this buildup along Ukraine and in Belarus. And the alliance, from a military perspective, is certainly united in thinking through the options of what we would have to do as an alliance to bolster our self-defense should Article 5 actually be put in threat.

KEILAR: All right.

John Kirby, thank you so much -- joining us from the Pentagon this morning. We appreciate it.

KIRBY: You bet, Bri.

So, we are following this breaking news out of Pittsburgh that we just told you about moments ago. And here is a photo that we have not yet seen until now. This is a bridge that has collapsed.

The timing here is ahead of President Biden's visit. He is visiting Pittsburgh today.

You can see vehicles that have fallen down, along with that bridge. It appears to be even possibly a bus that is precariously perched there on that part of the bridge that has collapsed but not fallen to the ground.

We are getting more information. We're getting these pictures and we're going to go there live, next.

BERMAN: And this comes as millions are bracing for a major winter weather event about to hit the east coast -- a bomb cyclone. As much as three feet of snow expected in major cities. We're getting new information on the forecast.

(COMMERCIAL)

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

BERMAN: Good morning to our viewers here in the United States and all around the world. It is Friday, January 28th. I'm John Berman with Brianna Keilar.

And there is breaking news.

We're seeing the first images of a bridge that has collapsed in Pittsburgh. This is the scene there. That's the bridge itself. The photo of that bridge -- just collapsed -- it looks like there are cars and vehicles at the bottom there.

We are told that first responders are on the scene. Officials say the bridge was covered in snow. This was in the area of Forbes and Braddock.

KEILAR: Keep in mind, President Biden -- this is the timing of this.