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White House Walks Back Biden's Comment; Explosions in Western Ukraine; Ukrainian Patients Arrive at St. Jude. Aired 8:30-9a ET

Aired March 28, 2022 - 08:30   ET

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

[08:30:00]

ERIC DEGGANS, TV CRITIC, NPR: And when someone has that much power acts without realizing how much power they wield and how they can disrupt the lives of other people, that's the true tragedy. And when they're supported by other people in the room instead of reminded of the responsibility to act responsibly and act like the role model they say they are, then that's truly the biggest problem.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: I think it's a really good point you make. It did overshadow so many achievements, including Will Smith's, but so many other achievements on an evening where those should have just been shining.

Eric Deggans, Sara Sidner, thank you so much to both of you.

And Sara's new show, "BIG PICTURE," you can catch that streaming at 9:00 a.m. daily starting tomorrow on CNN Plus.

Sara, we'll be turning into that. Thank you so much.

SARA SIDNER, HOST, "BIG PICTURE": Thanks, Brianna.

KEILAR: President Biden trying to walk back his comments that seemed to call for a regime change in Russia. What will Vladimir Putin take away from this.

Plus, French President Emmanuel Macron lecturing Biden on his rhetoric? What did he say, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:35:02]

BERMAN: President Biden now trying to walk back comments he made while in Poland this weekend in which he seemed to call for regime change in Russia.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: For God's sake, this man cannot remain in power.

QUESTION: Mr. President, were you calling for regime change?

BIDEN: No.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Joining me now, CNN's senior global affairs analyst Bianna Golodryga, as well as CNN senior political analyst John Avlon.

John, you think Biden made a mistake here?

JOHN AVLON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: He made a mistake to the extent that it is a gaff. It was an outburst that was not part of his scripted remarks. I think probably influenced by his emotions being in the -- you know, visiting refugees that very day.

It is not a call for regime change, though. Let's be clear. It's not a redefinition of U.S. policy. And, to some extent, he just said the quiet part out loud, which is that nobody, a world leader, believes, I think, that the -- Vladimir Putin should remain in power indefinitely after showing himself to be such a fundamentally lawless butcher of civilians. But that is different than a statement of regime change.

Did it muddle an otherwise excellent speech? Absolutely. Was it a mistake because it's been a distraction for two days? Yes. Is it a redefinition of American policy? No.

BIANNA GOLODRYGA, CNN SENIOR GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Yes, and I don't necessarily --

BERMAN: So, Bianna, it is interesting I -- sorry, go ahead. Go ahead.

GOLODRYGA: No, I was just going to say, I agree -- I agree with John. I don't think it was necessarily helpful, but I don't think it was that harmful either. Clearly this has been the narrative coming out of the Kremlin for many years, right, since the revolution of dignity in Ukraine in 2013 and 2014. This has been the Kremlin's talking point, that the west wants to see regime change. That, obviously, we are a democratic country, as laughable as that is, and that is the west and its outsiders that want to change leadership in Russia. That was always going to be their narrative. And so this feeds into that.

That having been said, listen, this president has called Vladimir Putin a killer and they ultimately met and had spoken many times after that. He called him a butcher recently. So I think all of the attention is unwarranted. And I don't think it was helpful to have every -- nearly every single European leader weigh in and walk it back and say that's not their view or what have you. If we're going to be presenting a united front, as NATO has been, then they need to continue making that point.

BERMAN: I will say, the White House clearly thought there was an issue, else they would not have walked it back, right? They felt the need to walk it back, which indicates that they saw some kind of a problem.

I'll also just note that every Ukrainian I've spoken with, including the former president, Viktor Yanukovych, just a few moments ago, was basically saying, we've been waiting for him to say this for a long time. It was absolutely correct.

Bianna, President Zelenskyy did this interview with these Russian journalists over the weekend, which is really remarkable, and yet it is not getting the full play in Russia for obviously reasons and the Russians are saying, we're really not scared of it, though. What to make of it?

GOLODRYGA: Yes, (INAUDIBLE). That is the Russian censorship agency. And what was so laughable about this, and it just shows how nervous they are about any of this information getting to their people, is that they blocked this interview before it even aired, right? So they gave it more attention than even need be. And we should note, out of those four journalists, three are outside of the country, only one of them, those independent Russian journalists, remain in Moscow.

It was a fascinating interview, nonetheless. It was an hour and a half. And it was a raw look inside the mind of Zelenskyy and how he has persevered continuously. I mean he gave an interview -- a lengthy interview to "The Economist" after that. But he went to great length describing to him the rupture now, the irreparable rupture between Ukraine and Russia, what Vladimir Putin has done to drag the Russian culture and language down into the mud that nobody will want to speak it. He's blaming Vladimir Putin, obviously, for all of that. And he talked about the thousands of Russian troops that he keeps coming back to this point. And I find it so -- I still don't understand it, right, as a mother, as a human being, and that's why he continues to make this point. He doesn't understand what has happened to the Russian mentality, how have they brainwashed people so much that they don't care, that there are thousands of Russian troops lying there and the Russians are not reclaiming them. What are the mothers, fathers thinking about it? It was a really emotional interview.

BERMAN: John, about to be round five of the negotiations between the Ukrainians and Russians. I wonder what you think the U.S. position should be toward these talks. What do you think the U.S. wants to see happen here?

AVLON: Well, I think what the U.S. and the international community wants is a de-escalation, is a removal of Russian troops. I think the question is, what is the best alternative to a negotiated settlement on either side? What -- how -- how can you give Putin some kind of golden bridge to retreat upon and what does that look like?

[08:40:01]

Is it a return to neutrality, which was the a pre-Crimea position in Ukraine? Is it -- is it an acquiescence with regard to Crimea? What happens to the Donbas? You know, Macron is trying to insert himself in this as well. I think neutrality with regard to NATO shouldn't extend to the EU. There needs to be security guarantees. At this point, I think, anything will be seen as a defeat for Vladimir Putin. But, subsequently, if he keeps two areas in Ukraine, that's a gain of land mass. What we want is Russian troops out of Ukraine. That is about maintenance of the international law and that is in the world's interest. GOLODRYGA: Yes, and if I could just put a button on that, John. What

was also interesting about that interview with Zelenskyy was one of the first things he said was, he believes 99.9 percent with certainty that Vladimir Putin believed that this would have happened in two or three days, that they would have taken Kyiv, right, that the Ukrainians themselves wanted a change in leadership, that they would have welcomed these Russians with open arms, with smiles and flowers, as he says, and that has not happened.

So, we're in uncharted territory in terms of what we can expect next from Vladimir Putin who will never accept defeat, right? How does he bow out gracefully if he, in fact, remains in power? And how do you justify to the Russian people that it costs tens of thousands perhaps of troops, dead and wounded, to reclaim territory that they could have -- they could have negotiated otherwise with.

AVLON: That's right.

BERMAN: Bianna, John, thank you both very much.

Our CNN teams hearing several explosions overnight near Ukraine's capital.

Plus, we're getting word of Russian forces trying to create this corridor around the capital to block off resupply. We're live on the ground next.

And Ukraine vowing to investigate a video that appears to show its soldiers shooting Russian prisoners of war in the legs.

Stand by.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:45:48]

BERMAN: Brand new video this morning showing plumes of smoke rising near Kyiv. This after Ukrainian officials reported two powerful explosions in western and west central Ukraine overnight.

CNN's Ivan Watson is live for us in Zaporizhzhia in Ukraine with more.

Ivan, what are you seeing?

IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi there, John.

This city has been spared -- this city has been spared the ground fighting that we've seen in other cities and around Kyiv. But make no mistake, it is not far from Russian military positions. There are Russian tanks about 20 miles south from where I'm standing right now. And -- and so the scenes that we see, I mean this is a quiet, residential neighborhood, but I've been watching families with their kids on bicycles, a man walking his dog just now, businesses open, and the busier boulevards just lots of people out on the streets on this kind of windy, spring day. It's all the more striking when you consider how close the Russian military is to here. Now, this is also one of the main gateways for Ukrainians who have

been trapped for weeks enduring the modern day siege of that port city of Mariupol. That's the city where a theater that had been a sanctuary for hundreds of civilians was bombed from the sky. That's a city where people have lived for weeks without electricity, heat or running water and are describing things like bodies piling up in the neighborhoods not being recovered. And so many of these people, thousands of them, are coming here to Zaporizhzhia.

The Ukrainian government is trying to organize convoys of buses to reach them, to help pick them up, but there are disagreements with the Russian military about letting these vehicles through. So it's -- any given day, we don't know whether or not those people will get through.

I've been meeting with some of them arriving just after having endured these weeks of just totally traumatizing artillery strikes and Russian air strikes coming to a safe place really for the first time in weeks. Take a listen to what one woman told me.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): We walked among corpses. There were bodies under the evergreens, soldiers without heads, without arms, they are lying there. Nobody is gathering them.

There was such fear that I felt like I was under water. I wanted to wake up. And now I am here and this feels like some kind of a dream.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WATSON: Now, John, this part of Ukraine, the south, the east, these are traditionally Russian-speaking areas, right? The police that I've met with in this city are native Russian speakers from birth. And the invasion by Russia has pushed some of these men to tell me that they're now ashamed to speak Russian. Some of them telling me -- one man -- officer saying his own father was a Putin supporter, and since he saw a Russian-speaking city pummeled by Russian forces, that man has now become a diehard Ukrainian patriot. Putin has helped push Ukrainians who sympathize with Moscow to now support Kyiv.

John.

BERMAN: Isn't that interesting. I met an ethnic Russian here who has stopped speaking Russian at home to his child because he says he's ashamed of what has happened here. If Putin thought that he was going to have the Russian speakers flock to his side, he's not getting that at all.

And, Ivan, I have to say, seeing you walking in the streets of Zaporizhzhya, that city -- that place where you are is not far from what is considered I think the front lines of where this battle is. But it shows just what a difference a few miles can make.

Ivan, thank you so much for that report.

So, Ukraine's military chief says that he believes Vladimir Putin is trying to split the country in two. Plus, children battling cancer escaping Ukraine. Some even finding refuge in the United States.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:54:06]

KEILAR: Pediatric cancer knows now boundaries, and its victims include children from Ukraine whose homes and hospitals have now become part of a war zone. First Lady Jill Biden recently visited St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, which has helped evacuate hundreds of patients from the war-torn country of Ukraine.

Here to talk about it, to talk about the great work that St. Jude Children's Research Hospital is doing is the president and CEO, Dr. James Downing.

Dr. Downing, thank you so much for being with us.

I know that you all have been able to evacuate many people, but in particular four children who are now getting treatment in the U.S. Can you tell me a little bit about them and their escape?

JAMES R. DOWNING, M.D., PRESIDENT AND CEO, ST. JUDE CHILDREN'S RESEARCH HOSPITAL: Yes, we've been able to help over 700 children with cancer to evacuate the war zone and transfer into Poland and then into other countries within the European Union. And, ultimately, some of the patients to here in the United States.

[08:55:03]

And so over a week ago, last Monday evening actually, four children came to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. These are children that range in age from 18 months to eight years. They came with their mothers, some siblings. And, you know, they are really evacuating that war zone. They are fighting a life-threatening disease. They're coming 5,000 miles to a country where they don't speak the language. And, you know, restarting their cancer therapy.

And so we've done everything we can to welcome them to our hospital and to provide them all the support they need so that they can be comfortable and they can be assured that they're going to get the best care possible.

KEILAR: Yes, you're giving them the shot that they were having in Ukraine, but that the war interrupted and they should certainly have that shot.

I know you have doctors doing incredible research at the Unicorn Clinic. Can you tell us what you need right now?

DOWNING: You know, we're providing support for those patients and families, but really all of the staff that's working at the Unicorn Clinic. We have three of our physicians who are on the ground there. We have many physicians and emergency personnel from Poland. You know, and it's really support for them. You know, a local barber came in over the weekend to give free haircuts so that everybody would look good when the next convoy of patients who had come. They were able to celebrate a birthday for one of the patients.

And so, you know, the staff is doing well, but it's those little moral supports. They are, you know, in a very high, intense situation taking care of very sick children, trying to distribute them to other clinics where they can continue with their care. And so there's a lot of need for their emotional support and their help as they work in that clinic.

KEILAR: Well, please pass on our gratitude to them, Dr. Downing. Your teams are doing incredible work, and we thank you for talking with us about it.

DOWNING: Thank you for having me.

KEILAR: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy saying that his forces made a chilling discovery that proves the Russians thought they'd win the war in about three days.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:00:00]