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President Biden Gives Speech Urging Russia to Not Invade Ukraine; Russia States Some Troops Withdrawing from Border with Ukraine; Russian Invasion of Ukraine May Cause Increase in Gas Prices in U.S. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired February 16, 2022 - 08:00   ET

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

[08:00:00]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: This morning, the Kremlin is responding to President Biden's comments for the first time. Spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said, quote, "It is positive that the U.S. president is also noting his readiness to start serious negotiations." And Putin now claims, claims that some Russian troops are returning to their bases after completing their drills. New video released overnight from the Russian Ministry of Defense, consider the source here, allegedly shows tanks and troops returning from Crimea on a train after exercises, but officials in the U.S. and Ukraine are skeptical. They insist they see no evidence yet of a pullback, and CNN has been unable to confirm if this video accurately reflects the situation on the ground.

We want to go live to Alexander Marquardt, who is live in Mariupol in Ukraine. This is where the Ukrainian president is going today, in this area, 15 miles, Alex, as you tell us, from the front lines in Russia now. Tell us what you're seeing and what you're hearing.

ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yes, John, 15 miles from the front line where Russian-backed forces have been fighting for the past eight years against Ukrainian forces. John, we are hearing from the Russians that they are pulling back their forces from the south and from the west, from Crimea, as you noted.

At the same time, absolutely no confirmation from the NATO side. NATO secretary general, as you mentioned, saying that we are just seeing troops continuing to build up. President Biden just yesterday saying that the troop -- the Russian troops around Ukraine now number 150,000. That's the biggest number that he has ever given. The U.K. defense minister saying the same thing.

And John, we see the confusion down here on Ukraine's southern coast, where we have seen buildup on what has been really a third front around Ukraine over the course of the past few weeks. Satellite imagery showing us that just across this water here, the Sea of Azov, there are Russian strike fighters that are ready to go. More of that imagery showing that there are some 60 helicopters have been flown into Crimea over the course of the past few days.

Meanwhile, this Russian Ministry of Defense video showing that they are pulling back troops from Crimea. It says they are loading on to trains, along with tanks and artillery and heading back across what is known as the Kerch Strait on to the Russian mainland. We should note, John, that even as those troops -- if the troops are being withdrawn from Crimea, that they are still going to be extremely close to Ukraine.

Now, as you mentioned, today is a day of unity. This was announced just two OK ago by President Zelensky. We haven't seen major events across the country. We have seen lots of flags here in Mariupol. We've seen billboards. President Zelensky is going to be accompanied today by European ambassadors. And this is really just to show that Ukraine stands together against this Russian aggression.

Meanwhile, John, as you heard from many of our colleagues, life is continuing normally for many Ukrainians. There is not a hint of panic. People continue to go to work, they continue to go to school, even continue to come out here and walk along the beach, even though it is the dead of winter and pretty darn cold. John?

BERMAN: It is Ukraine. Alex Marquardt, thank you so much for being there for us, appreciate it.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: Joining us now is the founding partner and Washington correspondent for "Puck" Julia Ioffe, who has long been covering Russia's looming threat. First off, Julia, just give us a sense of where you see these latest moves affecting things, where is the trajectory of war, are we moving towards it or away from it?

JULIA IOFFE, FOUNDING PARTNER AND WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT, "PUCK": I think we're kind of running in place. As Alex pointed out, and as many other people have pointed out, the troops being moved, if they are being moved, are the ones that are most easily re-deployable, and the ones that are still within striking dance of Kyiv are still place.

Also, what does it mean to withdraw some troops? You can withdraw 10,000, 20,000 troops, and still have over 100,000 troops pressing on Ukraine. I think this is just a way to get back at the U.S. for the informational kind of campaign that Washington is waging, which is saying Russia is about to invade, Russia is about to invade, Russia is about to start a war. And this is basically Putin countering and saying, we're trying to start a war? What are you talking about? We have nothing to do with this. We're just having military exercises. We're actually moving some away. We're all about diplomacy. And I think this is really about wresting back control of the narrative of who can be the most unpredictable actor in this conflict, which Putin loves to be.

BERMAN: It is interesting that you say that Putin is trying to wrest back the narrative, which implies, and you write about in "Puck," that Biden has effectively driven this narrative, you say., [08:05:01]

And you write a line here which really jumped out to me. You said "The Biden strategy is starting to look like a pretty good one. What is better than tricking the guy who threatened war into threatening peace?" First of all, that's very elegant writing. Second, I do think that it describes a situation where, look, every day there is diplomacy. Every day there is running in place is a day where Russian troops aren't crossing the border again.

IOFFE: That's right. The Biden White House doesn't have that many options, right. It is actually a pretty weak hand that they're playing pretty deftly. Biden has said all along no American troops are going to be involved. So that's off the table, even though it's not off the table for Russia. Sanctions are on the table, but at this point Putin just sees them as the cost of doing business. As I wrote, he sees it more as overhead than as deterrent.

And so what the Biden administration is left with is basically informational warfare and unmasking Russian plans before the Russians can implement them and taking away the element of surprise. And I think it's working pretty well, and it's buying a lot of time for this diplomatic process to continue, which is ostensibly what Moscow wants, what it says it wants.

And I think they kind of do want the diplomatic process. They think -- it is interesting when you hear the establishment in Washington talk about, oh, tensions have never been higher since the Cold War, as if that's a bad thing. We see the Cold War as a bad thing and it's a good thing it's over. Whereas in Russia, they see the Cold War as a good thing, as a place we should return to because Russia was one of two superpowers, counterbalancing the U.S., throwing sand in its gears, having to be dealt with, having to be consulted with, having to be asked for permission.

So they're trying to get back to a place of the Cold War in Europe where the two main guarantors of security or insecurity are not just the U.S. and NATO, but also Russia. And that requires some diplomatic maneuvering and a new security agreement in Europe, which is what Russia says it wants. And this is buying time for, as you said no war, but also diplomacy.

KEILAR: Yes, look, as you talk about destabilizing Ukraine, Russia still gets something out of this, and you're seeing this stress test that Ukraine has not obviously fully passed. Some of the cracks being revealed. Julia, really appreciate you being with us this morning. Thank you.

IOFFE: Thanks so much, Brianna.

KEILAR: Let's bring in CNN senior political correspondent Abby Phillip to talk about this. OK, so, look, I know we're not at the end of this. You can't make a judgment about how the Biden administration is doing because it's not over. But right now, you heard what Julia said there about trying to take the narrative away from Putin, that he's effectively done that. What do you think? ABBY PHILLIP, CNN ANCHOR, INSIDE POLITICS SUNDAY: Yes, and I think

she characterized it pretty well, which is that the United States is actually not in a great position right now. There is not a whole lot that they are willing to do to truly stop war, and so what we do have at their disposal, which is the bully pulpit, the Biden administration is using. From the very beginning going back as far as November, they have been very out front about what Putin is doing, how he's trying to maybe trick the global stage into thinking that this war would be justified by launching a disinformation campaign. They talked about a potential that Putin would try to put a puppet government into Ukraine. These are all attempting to make what Putin is, at this point, likely to do unacceptable on the global stage.

It won't prevent Putin necessarily from going there if he so chooses. But it makes the consequences of it beyond just the death toll, which will be significant. It could make Putin even more of a pariah on the global stage, and that's the Biden objective.

KEILAR: It was an interesting approach of President Biden yesterday to speak directly to the Russian people. I wonder how much that got through, but also tell us about the calculus in his decision to do that.

PHILLIP: Well, one of the things that Putin has been doing is trying to explain away the prospect of death to the Russian populous. He's been projecting to Russians that this would be some sort of patriotic mission, that if there are deaths, which there would likely be in the event of an invasion, that that would be justified. And what Biden tried to do is say, no, when body bags are coming back to Moscow, that's going to be because Putin chose war.

And I do think that's very significant for Russians to hear in the context of a regime that is authoritarian. And I do think it's important for the world to hear that Russians are not alone -- Russians who may oppose what Putin wants to do are not alone, that the global stage is with them too in understanding that death and destruction could have been avoided had Putin made a different decision.

[08:10:00]

KEILAR: It did not. It was not good for Putin domestically when body bags were coming back during Crimea, and Biden clearly knows that. If a lot of Americans are not paying attention to what is going on in Ukraine, they probably really should right now. We're talking about what we've learned about the economic effects and the possible impact on inflation. Can you tell us about that?

PHILLIP: Yes, this is the part that, look, a lot of Americans are going to look at this crisis and they're going to say I get it, it's bad to invade another country, but we've got a lot of stuff going on here at home. And this is the part of the crisis in Ukraine that will hit home. If there is an invasion, there's a good chance that gas prices will go up. That will hit people's pocketbooks here in the United States at a time when there's already record inflation. And Biden talked about that yesterday. He talked about trying to

proactively do things to reduce the impact. It's really going to be a test, can they do that sufficiently? One of the things we're hearing on Capitol Hill is that Democrats are talking about a gas tax holiday. There are a lot of people who are opposed to that because gas tax holidays are temporary in nature and they cost a lot of money. But it's a reflection of how much concern there is domestically that already high gas prices on top of an invasion in Ukraine will be unbearable to the American public. And that's a real concern for the Biden administration, and you heard it in President Biden's statement yesterday.

KEILAR: We will keep watching that to see if that happens. Abby, thank you so much for being here with me this morning. I appreciate it.

And new this morning, the head of the International Olympic Committee is meeting with Team USA, met with Team USA figure skaters to talk about the Russian doping scandal. This was a long meeting. So what was discussed here?

Plus, an incredible medical breakthrough. A woman in the U.S. cured of HIV. The new treatment that could be a global game changer.

BERMAN: Plus, breaking overnight, an historic recall election, three members of a San Francisco school board kicked out of office over what they did and didn't do during the pandemic. Is this a sign of things to come around the country?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:15:50]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: So breaking this morning, CNN is projecting that three San Francisco school board members have been successfully recalled in a special election amid fierce backlash from parents who say the officials failed to prioritize their children throughout the course of the pandemic.

CNN's Nick Watt has been following this story and he joins us now.

This is incredibly considering, I think, because it resonates across the country. Tell us about this, nick.

NICK WATT, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's exactly right. You know, you might ask yourself why is a local school board meeting getting national attention, well, it is in part because this is in deep blue San Francisco. You know, voted 85 percent for Biden last time around. And, you know, we have gotten used to seeing anti-COVID restriction protests in red states. Not so much in cities like San Francisco.

And COVID restrictions are at the heart of this. Listen, there are many other issues, of course, but a lot of parents seem to be motivated by the fact that their schools there in San Francisco were closed for over a year, and meantime the school board was doing other things like trying to rename 44 schools that were named after people like Abraham Lincoln, who they decided shouldn't be honored in that way anymore.

So that is one of the major things that drove this. Let's hear a little bit of parent reaction.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I saw a lot of kids struggling, you know, doing school from home, and I saw the school board prioritize renaming schools.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The kids had only about six weeks of in class instruction last year. I mean, before summer break. So that is a huge loss when it comes to kids who are coming from difficult socioeconomic situations.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WATT: Now, the recalled school board members, you know, they said, listen, that renaming effort was going on long before. It started in 2017. And they also say, listen, you're not giving us credit for the very low COVID case numbers in San Francisco that the city is getting credit for.

So what happens now? London Breed, the mayor, she gets to appoint three new school board members until the next election. And London Breed released a statement, in it she says the voters of this city have delivered a clear message that the school board must focus on the essentials of delivering a well-run school system above all else. San Francisco is a city that believes in the value of big ideas, but those ideas must be built on the foundation of a government that does the essentials well.

Now, this was the first recall vote in San Francisco in about 40 years, but recalls have become quite fashionable in this state. You'll remember Governor Gavin Newsom, he survived pretty easily an effort last year that was really driven by COVID restrictions.

San Francisco's progressive D.A. also faces a recall vote June 7th. Interestingly, the supervisors in San Francisco just added another ballot measure to that vote June 7th that would make it much harder to hold recall votes in the city.

One of the things they're proposing is you can't hold a recall within a year of a scheduled election. That would have actually meant this school board recall never happened because the school board is up for election pretty soon.

But, listen, as you say, this is getting national attention because it is anti-COVID, restrictions in a very blue city. And, of course, people are looking at what the big issues are going to be as we move into the midterms.

KEILAR: Yeah, I think it is also just about people questioning if officials balanced priorities correctly, especially with the benefit of hindsight. We can all look back and see where decisions might have been made differently. The question is could they have at the time. I don't know. It is up to voters, I guess, Nick.

Thank you so much.

WATT: Thanks.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right. This is something of a medical miracle. We have seen it before. Scientists report a woman is the third known person to be cured of HIV following a treatment for leukemia.

CNN senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen joins us now.

Elizabeth, for those of us who are live in the '80s, whenever you see this, it is just -- it is a miracle.

[08:20:02]

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: It really is. I try not to use the "M" word very often, but it seems to be appropriate here, because as you said, this was just a death sentence, right? So, now, we have fabulous drugs for HIV and in addition, let me tell you what happened here. A woman in the U.S. diagnosed with HIV, and then a few years later, like four years later diagnosed with leukemia.

She needed a stem cell transplant and doctors said, you know what, we're going to go find a newborn through this registry who has this rare mutation that makes the resistance to HIV. She got that transplant and four years later, there is no evidence of HIV, which is really quite amazing.

You might say, this is the third person this happened to. What is the big deal? The big deal is she's from a racially diverse background, which makes transplants tricky sometimes and she didn't get this horrible complication graft versus host disease. The other two did. It gives you hope we can try this in other people with HIV and leukemia and they may not get the graft versus host disease.

But I want to clear. This is not for everyone, right? You think, oh, this must be for everyone. Let's give this to everyone with HIV.

Absolutely not. These stem cell transplants can be dangerous. They can kill people, high mortality rate. And so you don't want to go doing that when you do have drugs that work.

So, let's listen to what Dr. Anthony Fauci had to say about this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NIAID: This person happened to have an underlying disease, which required a stem cell transplant. So I don't want people to think that now this is something that can be applied to the 36 million people who are living with HIV.

(END VIDEO CLIP) COHEN: So the bottom line here, John, is that this is fascinating science, and also possibly a great treatment for the relatively small number of people who have both HIV and a blood cancer.

BERMAN: It is a lesson. It's a lesson in that it will have an impact on at least some people.

COHEN: Yes.

BERMAN: Elizabeth Cohen, thank you so much.

Brianna?

KEILAR: Families of the Sandy Hook massacre reach a multimillion dollar settlement with a gun manufacturer, the first time ever. We'll have details ahead.

BERMAN: And a doctor, a graphic designer, an IT tech, those are a few of the ordinary Ukrainian citizens training to defend themselves against a Russian invasion.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:26:21]

KEILAR: With 150,000 Russian troops assembled near the Ukraine border, President Zelensky is declaring today a national day of unity. Every day Ukrainians now taking up arms and preparing should Russia decide to invade.

CNN's Erin Burnett is on the ground in Ukraine.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ERIN BURNETT, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This group of men meets to shoot. It was just a hobby. Now it's for something bigger -- their country.

SVIAT KIVACHUK, PRACTICAL SHOOTING CLUB: They're prepared to kind of work in case of a full invasion, so their main responsibility will be to secure the streets, to secure the, like, core buildings and stuff like that, together with army and Ukrainian special forces.

BURNETT: But it is -- but these are civilians that are willing to step into that role and to do that in the streets if necessary.

KIVACHUK: Yes, exactly. So it's something similar to militia.

BURNETT: Sviat is a trained philologist. He now works in cloud computing IT here in Lviv. Like many here, he has U.S.-based clients, so the time difference allows him to practice shooting in the mornings and go to work afterwards.

Temore (ph) is also in IT. Dmitrio (ph) is a doctor. Mikhailo is a graphic designer. Ordinary citizens in the city of more than 700,000, now practicing tactical advances in case they ever need them on the city streets.

Sviat and his friends take this motto on display at the shooting club literally. Lviv, people of action.

KIVACHUK: If you will look into Ukrainian history, throughout the 20th century, and we were fighting against USSR, so we had local guerilla forces especially here on western Ukraine, and we were willing to fight, so I guess that's kind of our heritage.

BURNETT: The president of the practical shooting club, which has groups across Ukraine, tells us he used to get five calls a week from people wanting to learn to shoot.

Now, as Putin's army sit on Ukraine's borders, he says he gets more than times that many. Lviv shooting club adding more training, with 350 people coming this weekend, people of all ages ready to defend themselves if needed.

Sviat says he taught one boy who is 11 years old. Sviat's friends have multiple guns. There's no limit on the number of guns you can own in Ukraine. Sviat said his second will be an AR-15. He's hoping he'll only need it for target practice.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BERMAN: This morning, Russia still says it is pulling its troops back, some of them, from the Russian border returning to base, but President Biden says he cannot yet confirm that is the case.

Here with me, the chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Democratic Senator Mark Warner of Virginia.

Chairman, thank you so much for being with us.

President Biden said he was not yet able to verify that the Russian troops, some of them, were returning to base. That was yesterday.

Have you seen anything to indicate that the Russians are returning to their bases?

SEN. MARK WARNER (D-VA): No, we have seen no real evidence. There have been some troop movements, but some of the troops that are really right on the border have not moved at all. We know the Russians have moved forward some of their supplies, things like blood for field hospitals.

So while there has been words coming from Putin's mouth, we have got to believe the facts on the ground. He may be moving back the date and that's good in terms of when he might launch his invasion. I think the messages are getting through. The images on the setup on this -- in this slot where Ukrainians are out training on a regular basis, Putin's got to be seeing those images that even if he overcomes Ukrainian military, there will be an insurgency.