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Putin, Xi Meet for Talks Ahead of Olympic Games; Pentagon Says Russia is Preparing False-Flag Stunt for Excuse to Invade Ukraine; Deadly Storm Dumps Snow, Ice, Sleet Amid Tornado Threats; Tense Moments Inside Situation Room During ISIS Raid. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired February 04, 2022 - 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: Hello. I'm Brianna Keilar with John Berman on this NEW DAY.

[05:59:45]

Let the games begin. The opening ceremony for the 2022 Winter Olympics is going to kick off in an hour amid the coronavirus pandemic, and also, political tensions over boycotts and alleged human rights abuses.

U.S. officials say Russia plotted a false flag attack against Ukraine, this time using a fake graphic video as a pretext for invasion.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: CNN goes behind the scenes of the U.S. raid in Syria. The complex months of planning. The tense moments in the Situation Room, and the deadly blast that killed a top ISIS leader.

For the first time ever, Facebook loses daily users. Shares plummet. Is this the sign of the beginning of a major downturn?

KEILAR: Good morning to our viewers here in the U.S. and around the world. It is Friday, February 4. And the Beijing Olympics officially begin with the opening ceremonies. Athletes from around the world pouring into China's capital to bring their elite skills to the world stage, but boycotts and global politics are already overshadowing them.

The political tension at this event, palpable. Several countries, including the U.S., imposing diplomatic boycotts to protest China's alleged human rights abuses.

BERMAN: Overnight, India announced it would not attend the opening ceremonies. They're upset because the Chinese commander who was involved in a border dispute between the two countries was picked as a torch bearer.

But this is the lead today right now. I want to show you a picture which encapsulates all the challenges facing the United States on the global stage right now.

Vladimir Putin has arrived on the scene in China. He is there attending the Olympics. He has already met with the Chinese leader, Xi Jinping. They are embracing each other as much as you can possibly do on the diplomatic stage, expressing support for each other and the challenges that each country is facing.

And all this is happening as Russia has more than 100,000 troops poised on the Ukrainian border. China expressing its support for Russia.

So the image there, really, stunning images of the two men standing side by side together. Very much a united front they want to present to the world and to the United States.

And of course, COVID is just feet away from them. If you're talking about all the challenges facing the United States, you have Russia. You have China, and you have COVID there, with all these new cases at the games.

Selina Wang live in Beijing this morning for us, where again, U.S. challenges all seen in one place.

SELINA WANG, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, John. And this opening ceremony is really a moment for Beijing to show a wealthy, powerful China and one that, under Xi Jinping, is more authoritarian and increasingly at odds with the West.

And what a contrast it will be to the 2008 games. Back then, you had George W. Bush standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Chinese leaders. This time around, a very different guest of honor.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WANG (voice-over): Vladimir Putin bringing the eyes of the world with him to Beijing. Like the Russian president, who has silenced his critics at home and threatened his enemies abroad, many of the dignitaries at the opening ceremony for the Winter Olympics do not have a glowing record when it comes to human rights and freedoms.

It's a constant charge leveled at host China.

CHRISTINE BRENNAN, CNN SPORTS ANALYST: We should not be here at all.

WANG: While athletes from 91 teams will compete, far fewer will be represented by visiting VIPs at the opening ceremony. And most of those places are considered either not free or only partly free by U.S. rights group Freedom House: from Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to Egypt's Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, and the autocratic leaders of countries like Tajikistan and Turkmenistan.

They're all filling a gap left by the United States and like-minded countries who are staging a diplomatic boycott. Washington says China's rights record, particularly the alleged genocide of its Uyghur Muslim minority, means it cannot contribute to the fanfare of the games.

Despite mounting evidence, the Chinese government says it's not persecuting the Uyghurs. JEN PSAKI, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: U.S. diplomatic or official

representation would treat these games as business as usual in the face of the PRC's egregious human rights abuses and atrocities in Xinjiang, and we simply can't do that.

WANG: A far cry from 2008, when George W. Bush sat shoulder-to- shoulder with Chinese officials.

BRENNAN: We're saying, basically, to China, we despise your repressive, awful regime. We hate what you're doing with human rights abuses. We are not going to validate your Olympic Games. And we're not coming, but we're sending our athletes to do what they do. So it's really the perfect answer.

WANG (on camera): But to Beijing, the party won't be spoiled by its many notable absentees. The 2008 games were a moment for China to prove to the world what it was capable of. But this time around, the country isn't asking for approval, and the world is well aware of China's might.

(voice-over): The U.S. believes its diplomatic snub will keep Beijing's rights record in focus. But as the West turns its back on China, Xi Jinping is finding friends elsewhere, friends who won't be so quick to criticize.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WANG: And John, this opening ceremony will be simpler, with 3,000 performers, versus the 15,000 during the Summer Olympics. China now is more confident.

And back then, there was this immense pressure to pull off an extravagant ceremony to showcase this rise as this emergent super power. In 2008, China tried to meet the world's terms. Now its message is the world must accept China's -- John.

BERMAN: Well, look, to a certain extent, they're getting what they want. The United States announced it is sending its biggest delegation ever to the opening ceremonies. More U.S. athletes than ever marching in the opening ceremonies, they say. So China getting the spectacle they're after.

Selina Wang, thank you very much.

KEILAR: The U.S. is accusing Russia of an elaborate plot to stage a fake attack by Ukrainian forces that the Kremlin could then use as a pretext for an invasion.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN KIRBY, PENTAGON SPOKESMAN: As part of this fake attack, we believe that Russia would produce a very graphic propaganda video, which would include corpses and actors that would be depicting mourners, and images of destroyed locations, as well as military equipment, at the hands of Ukraine or the West.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: So Russia is denying this claim by the Pentagon.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VLADIMIR CHIZHOV, RUSSIAN AMBASSADOR TO THE EUROPEAN UNION: I can assure you that Russia is never involved in any business of this kind. And there is no reason, logically speaking, that that might be taking place.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: All right. Let's bring in CNN's Natasha Bertrand to talk about this.

You know, Natasha, it's not unusual for Russia to deny things all the time that are completely true. At the same time, this is a very serious claim. So where are we on understanding what's happened and where the intel is on this?

NATASHA BERTRAND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, so what we're told is that the administration has gathered intelligence, suggesting that Russia has been preparing to make such a video, not that such ha video has actually been made yet or that the U.S. actually has this in their possession but that all signs on the ground there point to Russia preparing to make this video in order to create a pretext for an invasion.

So for example, they've gathered evidence that Russia has already begun recruiting actors to act in this video, recruiting people to serve as mourners. And the administration says that the intelligence shows that the video would include fake explosions. I mean, very elaborate stuff.

And of course, they have been challenged on this in the last day or so, because they have been asked by reporters to produce the underlying intelligence that they have to suggest that Russia is actually preparing to do this.

But of course, they say they cannot reveal their sources and methods and this information they released yesterday is as far as they're willing to go, because it was declassified in order to prevent Russia from actually doing something like this.

I mean, we have to remember that this is just the latest in a series of disclosures that the U.S. has made to try to blunt the impact of any potential Russian action, provocation that they would use to serve as a pretext for an invasion. Everything from false flag attacks in Eastern Ukraine, to even, you know, having people waiting in the wings to serve as government officials to replace the government in Kyiv.

So the administration has been trying to get ahead of this. And they say that even if this video is never actually made, the idea that they released this intelligence suggesting that this is even being planned could be enough to thwart Russia. BERMAN: I've got to say, if Russia was even doing this, it's the

oldest trick in the book. I mean, this is how the Nazis invaded Poland. They staged this fake raid at a radio station there and also claimed that the Poles were committing genocide against ethnic Germans inside Poland. It's the exact same thing.

I want to bring in Sam Kiley, who is in Kyiv for us this morning. You know, this information of another possible way, another possible pretext for Russia to invade Ukraine, Sam, how's this being received?

SAM KILEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, John, I'm not actually in Kyiv. I'm in Kharkiv, which is about 30 miles from the Russian border. I'm standing by a memorial to the soldiers who've fallen in the conflict since 2014, including recruiting posters for a right-wing militia group and the Azov (ph) Brigade that used to be a militia, now absorbed into the home guard, effectively.

And the attitude to this latest false-flag allegation here in Ukraine is one that's pretty much a shrug of the shoulders, because they anticipate something, frankly, more effective and potentially more dramatic, even more bloody.

They often point to events 20 years ago relating to Chechnya, where the KGB was accused of false-flag events, including the killing of civilians that were blamed on Chechen separatists back then.

[06:10:04]

Of course, that remains a profound controversy. But there is that sense here that that's the sort of false-flag operation that could be conducted. They pointed here, Ukrainian intelligence have said that they had information of a similar sort of attack being planned against Russian soldiers in Moldova, which could get blamed on Ukraine. And the United States in the past has been claiming that they're aware of operatives in Donbass in the east of the country, not very far from where I'm standing on the other side of the front line, where there could be similar attacks.

It's important to also note that the Russian-speaking population here in Kharkiv is a majority. At least 75 percent of this city is Russian- speaking, as indeed, is the case in the Donbass.

And people in the Donbass have been given Russian citizenship. There's concerns here in Ukraine, for example, there could be a cause (ph) some kind of instant there that could provoke a wider land grab or consolidation of the Donbass, perhaps an attempt to annex it, as part of Putin's plan.

And that's the issue here, because people are trying to second-guess the move he's going to make for a relatively low investment. He's only got 120,000 troops, according to the Ukrainians, scattered across these various borders here.

BERMAN: Sam Kiley. Moving so quickly inside Ukraine we can't even keep track of you. In Kharkiv for us this morning.

Natasha Bertrand in D.C., thank you so much.

BERMAN: This morning, this dangerous winter storm wreaking havoc all the way from the Gulf Coast to Canada with heavy snow, icy roads, tornado threats. More than 300,000 customers without powers this morning, the lines covered in freezing rain and ice.

Several states have been blanketed with a foot of snow. More than 9,000 U.S. flights have been canceled. And the storm is now moving northeast. It's coming for us here, promising more disruption today. We will get right to meteorologist Chad Myers to get a sense of just how bad this is going to be.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: John, it's 56 in New York City right now. It's 18 in Albany. And that air is headed your way.

What's going to happen with rain and 56, when it changes to rain and 32, and then the rain and 31, you're going to get a little ice there today.

Also into Boston, as well. Winter storm warnings are still in effect this hour. It's kind of scattered out to where we were yesterday. And now some of this changing over to some snow.

Heavy thunderstorms across parts of the Deep South. Lots of thunder around my house down here in Atlanta. Also, some tornado watches and warnings yesterday.

There's the snow on up towards the north. There is a big line of where it's warm and where it's not. And that's where this change over from rain to snow to sleet will happen later on this afternoon for the big cities and I-95.

So temperatures are going to be going down, obviously. We're going to see some sleet. There's the bigger area around Boston and Worcester. That's where the main threat of any big sleet or even an ice storm would be today. And then the snow is to the north there, on up into parts of New England, New Brunswick and also into Nova Scotia -- John.

BERMAN: All right. It's here. Thanks so much, Chad. Appreciate it.

MYERS: You bet.

BERMAN: Tense moments inside the Situation Room. The complicated mission after months of preparation. How the U.S. raid in Syria all unfolded.

Plus, top Pence aides, top aides to the former vice president, Mike Pence, refusing to talk about conversations they had with Donald Trump. This is going on during their testimony to the January 6th Committee. Why they're not answering that, what they are answering, coming up.

KEILAR: And ahead, peer pressure. Billionaire Jeff Bezos has a gigantic superyacht. You see it there. And he wants the Dutch to dismantle a very historic bridge that is standing in the way of him getting it out to sea. But what will they do? (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: Dramatic new details emerging about the raid in Syria that resulted in the death of the leader of ISIS. The White House calls it a catastrophic blow to the terror group.

There were some tense moments inside of the Situation Room as President Biden was monitoring the operation. So let's get more on that with CNN's Barbara Starr, who is live for us at the Pentagon.

You know, pull the curtain back here a little bit. Can you tell us what happened, Barbara?

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, good morning, Brianna.

I think for many Americans, the most important thing right now is, thankfully, all U.S. troops returned safely from this mission. But the real question now may be how big a blow was this to the ISIS organization?

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

STARR (voice-over): ISIS leader Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi was killed Wednesday during a U.S. counterterrorism raid in northwest Syria.

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Thanks to the bravery of our troops, this horrible terrorist leader is no more.

STARR: It was the biggest U.S. raid in the country since the 2019 operation that killed the ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the original leader of ISIS. This operation was months in the making.

KIRBY: It was really built up over a while, looking at the intelligence from a different variety of sources to help us make sure that we had the right person, we had the right compound.

STARR: President Biden authorized the operation on Tuesday.

KIRBY: The conditions were perfect. The opportunity was there, and we took it.

STARR: President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and members of his military and national security teams watched from the White House as Special Forces closed in on their target.

The helicopters approached the three-story compound in the middle of the night, according to senior administration officials. Once on the ground, Special Forces warned civilians to clear out, evacuating 10 civilians, including eight children.

Officials say al-Qurayshi then blew himself up, killing his wife and children, and tearing the top of the building apart.

BIDEN: In a final act of desperate cowardness, he -- with no regard to the lives of his own family or others in the building, he chose to blow himself up.

[06:20:04]

STARR: His lieutenant, one floor below, was killed in an exchange of fire with U.S. forces. The Pentagon said a child was also killed on this floor but would not say how or by whom.

Toward the end of the two-hour operation, a group of individuals approached the compound who the U.S. troops deemed hostile. Two individuals were killed.

Officials say a U.S. helicopter involved in the operation suffered mechanical failure. A decision was made to disable and destroy it on the ground.

According to the Pentagon, four civilians and five combatants were killed during the raid.

Al-Qurayshi succeeded ISIS founder al-Baghdadi in 2019 after his demise. While he kept a low profile, he oversaw a resurgence of ISIS in various parts of Syria and Iraq.

BIDEN: He was responsible for the recent brutal attack on a prison in northeast Syria, holding ISIS fighters. He was the driving force behind the genocide of the Yazidi people in northwestern Iraq in 2014.

STARR: According to officials, al-Qurayshi never left the compound where he lived with his family on the third floor, except to bathe on the roof. By early December, U.S. officials were certain it was him in the residence.

BIDEN: This operation is testament to America's reach and capability to take out terrorist threats no matter where they try to hide, anywhere in the world.

STARR: And while the death of a top ISIS leader remains a significant victory in the fight against the terrorist group --

KIRBY: Make no mistakes that ISIS is a much more degraded organization than they were in 2014. We know that we've got to stay focused on ISIS. We know that they still have designs to kill and to maim and to terrorize, and there will likely be another leader appointed by them. And so we're going to stay focused on the threat.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

STARR: Now, there is still a discrepancy between the U.S. and civil defense officials on the ground in Syria in that location over how many civilians died. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin says he's going to have the Pentagon look into all of it -- Brianna.

KEILAR: All right. Barbara, we'll be looking forward to that. Thank you.

Coming up, Atlanta area D.A. Fani Willis detailing the next stage of the Trump probe. What she expects will happen this summer. BERMAN: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson rocked by a wave of resignations. The latest blow to a leader who might be on the brink.

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