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Biden to Address Ukrainian-Russia Conflict in State of the Union Address Tonight; Biden Speaks with Ukrainian President Zelensky. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired March 01, 2022 - 12:30   ET

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

[12:30:00]

MATTINGLY: As Seung Min said, acknowledging the realities of that moment, acknowledging the realities of the price increases and the overhang from COVID, but also putting out clear pathways to progress, I think is a clear issue that the White House wants to focus on.

One other element, and I think Laura hits on a key point here, thematically what's happening right now in Ukraine, what's happening right now in Europe actually slots in quite well with what the president has focused on for the last several years. And I think when you talk to White House officials, not only do they say behind the scenes the president feels very much in his element.

Obviously he's worked on this for decades, on these issues in the Senate, as Vice President. But also the idea of trying to make the point that bringing together the coalition they've brought together over the course of the last several months is unprecedented, and that is something to focus on and highlight.

KING: It's a fascinating moment. I covered the White House for 10 years, I remember George W. Bush, months after 9/11 giving his State of the Union speech trying to rile the country. This is in the middle, I mean, as the president is speaking tonight Vladimir Putin is likely to be having airstrikes across Ukraine as he tries to attack its biggest city.

I guess, I'm just kind of fascinated (ph) by the idea of how do you look the American people in the eye and say, I know you're exhausted, I know you're frustrated after two plus years of a pandemic, but I need your help.

KIM: Right, right. And that is a significant challenge for the president, and also a significant challenge for Congress as well. I'm going to be really watching to see how much - how - what kind of support he gets from the audience. Obviously there have been Republican criticism over his handling of Ukraine, but just kind of on the tactics overall.

You've heard some support - some broad bipartisan support, particularly from the American public. You've had public polling including ours and other outlets that have shown broad support, for example, on sanctions towards Russia.

The interesting thing is, President Biden himself is not getting the credit for his actions in Europe, in Ukraine. So how much - I'm looking to kind of the reaction from the audience in the State of the Union tonight and what that says about the country at large (ph).

KING: Appreciate you all - go ahead.

MATTINGLY: No, I was just going to say, you hit on a key point there, I think he's wildcard here. Talking to White House officials last night, they acknowledged how fluid things are. And basically are saying as they were going through the drafts of the speech last night, that over the course of the next 24 hours, things could change.

Because when the president is going to be speaking, is at a moment where they know there will be action and activity on the ground, and that may change things in the minutes leading up to the speech, let alone while he is speaking. It is a very different and complex moment right now.

KING: It's a fascinating moment, at the minimum. And thank you all for coming in on a busy day for all of you. And join us tonight - join Anderson Cooper and Jake Tapper, they lead our coverage of President Joe Biden's first State of the Union Address. Our special live coverage starts tonight 8 pm Eastern right here on CNN.

Next, a very important new CNN interview with Ukrainian President Zelensky. We're learning more about a call, also just today, moments ago with President Biden.

(COMMERCIAL)

[12:35:00]

This important news just in to CNN. The White House says President Biden spoke with the Ukrainian President Zelensky, just now, for about 30 minutes. Zelensky, also discussing that call in a tweet saying he spoke to the president about Russian sanctions, and saying we must stop the aggressor - that would be Putin, as soon as possible.

CNN's Matthew Chance, also had a chance today to sit down with President Zelensky. Matthew Chance joins us now live.

Matthew, a conversation at a fascinating moment, tell us about it.

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, we managed to get to see Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian President in his bunker in a presidential building, a presidential compound in the center of the Ukrainian capital as Russia forces, of course, gather around the outskirts of Kyiv, poised to carryout - or the anticipation is it (ph) could carryout some kind of large scale strike - an attempt to take the city. It's incredible really that Zelensky is still in the city, he's surrounded by military forces.

We had to be taken in separate cars, we had to change cars to a secret location where we were taken down in to the basement of a building covered in sandbags. We're led through dark corridors until we got to the location where we were told to wait, and to where President Zelensky finally arrived.

When he did come, he was dressed in military fatigues, in green khaki. He looked very tired, he looked like he hadn't shaved, his eyes were red, looked like he hadn't slept. He's obviously under a great deal of stress, and we spoke about a range of issues as well.

Not least the fact that he has been engaged, or his delegates have been engaged with Russia over the past couple of days in the attempt to find out whether there's (ph) any prospect of this conflict across the country being solved by diplomatic means. Take a listen to what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

You send your delegation to meet the Russians for talks.

PRES. VOLODYMYR ZELENSKY, UKRAINE: Yes.

CHANCE: Did anything substantial come out of that? Is there any hope as the world watches, for diplomacy?

ZELENSKY: They decided - they decided to begin to speak about the situation. And I wanted - I really wanted, and I told (ph) them, you have - first of all, everybody has to stop - stop fighting, and to go to that point (ph) from where it was beginning - it began. Five, six - today six days ago.

CHANCE: Yes.

ZELENSKY: I think there are principle things, you can do it. And that is very important moment. If you do this, and if those (ph) side is ready, it means that they are ready for the peace. If they don't ready (ph) it means that you're just - you know, just - how -

(CROSSTALK)

- wasting time.

CHANCE: And so you think you're wasting your time, or do you think they're ready?

[12:40:00]

ZELENSKY: We'll see.

(END VIDEO CLIP) CHANCE: Right, well, President Zelensky also said that he was anticipating the State of the Union speech by President Biden, as many Americans are, of course, many people around the world. Which is going to focus, predominantly on Ukraine.

And he said he wanted to hear in that Biden speech, some kind of detail, or some kind of explanation about why and how the war in Ukraine was about freedom and democracy, it wasn't just about a war in Ukraine, it was about something that effected everybody, including all Americans. And he said that that's something that he wanted President Biden to put across as strongly as possible in the State of the Union speech tonight.

KING: Matthew, obviously he has substantive demands. He would like the European Union to invite Ukraine, and he hopes the West - including the United States, can send him more military help, weapons, ammunition, as quickly as possible.

But does he understand - does he understand the personal symbol he has become? The power of his own example and how that has helped unite the West against Putin?

CHANCE: That's funny, because I asked him that question specifically. And I said, do you think you've become an icon of Ukraine? And he rejected that entirely, saying no, that's not what's happened here. What he does think though, he says, is that Ukraine has become iconic in its stance against Russia, and it's stance against the violence it's been inflicted with.

And he says that people in the United States and in Europe have recognized finally, or are recognizing finally what an important country, and what a symbolically important country Ukraine really is, sitting as it does on that sort of crossroads - on that junction between Russia and the West.

KING: Matthew Chance, very important conversation - a part of great reporting at a very important moment, appreciate it very much. Continue to follow the story.

Up next for us, some brand new CNN reporting. U.S. intelligence officials now making - assessing Putin's state of mind, a more urgent priority.

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[12:45:00]

This new development just in. Ukraine and Russia now scheduled to hold a second round of talks tomorrow, that according to Russian state media. This is a TV tower, right there in Kyiv, among the targets tonight in new airstrikes, just in the past few hours. Ukraine's second largest city Kharkiv also facing new strikes.

A U.S. defense official says there's heavy fighting in and around that city. As the violence continues, the international community continues to pressure Russia to stop. Earlier today diplomats walking out during a virtual address by the Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov at a United Nations meeting.

Ukraine's president says holding Kyiv is critical. President Zelensky, you see it there, delivering a keynote remote speech today to the European Parliament in Brussels, raising his fist to a standing ovation. In that speech, he appealed to the European Union to admit Ukraine as a member.

Better understanding Vladimir Putin's state of mind is now an urgent priority across U.S. intelligence agencies. Two sources familiar with the effort tell CNN that senior U.S. officials are asking for any new information they can get.

France's president is among those telling advisors he sees a different Putin. A leader, Macron, says more angry and isolated, perhaps because of the COVID pandemic.

Katie Bo Lillis is with us now, she's part of the CNN team with this new reporting on the Putin puzzle. Obviously Putin is always a major study for U.S. intelligence agencies, but at this moment, you say it like essentially (ph) looking under any rock for any clue as to why - why this now?

KATIE BO LILLIS, CNN REPORTER: Yes, John, so what we're told is that ever since last week when Putin gave this sort of uncharacteristically emotional speech full of kind of insane revisionist history, laying out his justification to invade Ukraine. Sources tell us that U.S. officials have really been pushing the intelligence community for any insight that they can come up with into Putin's mindset.

And so what they're looking for is things like, how is Putin responding to the stress of a military campaign that hasn't really gone as planned? How is he reacting to this sustained pressure campaign from a really unified western front? And as you hinted at, perhaps most intriguingly, how has his world view been impacted by what long-term Kremlin watchers say has been a pretty protracted period of isolation for the Russian president during the COVID-19 pandemic?

You know, has that left him, for example, less receptive to frank advice from his own - or less able to receive frank advice from his own senior advisors? And what we know is that one piece of intelligence that U.S. officials are closely looking at is this piece of raw intelligence gathered by the FBI.

It's a report that our colleague Zach Cohen was actually able to get a hold of and take a look at. And what it documents is what an FBI source told the bureau that he learned from another source.

So it should be understood that this is secondhand information. And what this source told the FBI is that over the past couple of days - and I want to quite this directly. "That Putin's behavior has been highly concerting and unpredictable." And that he expressed "extreme anger," over western sanctions put in place in response to the invasion.

Now, again, this is raw intelligence, not confirmed, not vetted, not analyzed. But it tells you how interested, and how sort of concerned U.S. officials are about this point, because that report of course, has caused a little bit of a fire storm, and we understand that the FBI under a little bit of pressure to try to go back, see if there's anything more they can learn.

[12:50:00]

KING: And it's an urgent point in the sense that one theory is, you impose these heavy sanctions that Putin is dependent on the oligarchs, that his wealth essentially it's stolen wealth, and it's a circle of crime and corruption with the oligarchs - and Putin would listen to them if they said, Mr. President this is too much, too far. But if he's not listening, if he's gone into a different place, that's why this - that's why trying to sort this out matters so much, right?

BO LILLIS: Yes, precisely. You know, what kind of - how receptive the Russian president is to advice that he is receiving is a critical point. But - and how isolated, and has he sort of - as some officials have suggested, become disconnected from reality?

Now, to be clear, many U.S. officials looking at this sort of question don't believe that's the case. You know, they say, look, this is a matter of trying to discern whether or not Putin is perhaps acting in a highly emotional state, whether or not he's responding to stress, but not necessarily that he's had some kind of mental break as some U.S. lawmakers, including Senator Marco Rubio, the top Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee, have suggested.

KING: Right. So let's listen to Rubio in the sense that as I mentioned, the French president was telling senior advisors, you know, I met with a couple years ago, then I just met with him - this is a different person.

Senator Rubio, a Senior Member, the Vice Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee looks at the data very closely, he says he does see a different Putin.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. MARCO RUBIO, (R) VICE CHAIR, INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE: The one thing that Vladimir Putin's always valued is emotional control. To watch a video of him the other night, and those flashes of anger, that's very uncharacteristic.

My point in saying all of this is that we have to understand that whatever we think he might have done, or assumed he would do in response to actions 10 or 15 years ago is not what he might do today, and that's an important thing to take into account. This is a very dangerous moment, in my opinion, because of that.

He's progressing towards laying siege, like a medieval siege of Kyiv.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: And so, I guess that's what the intelligence agency is trying to figure out. Did Putin just see Macron has elections this year, there's a new chancellor in Germany, he views Biden as weak, he views our democracy as dysfunctional. Did he just see this moment where instead of taking little bites of Ukraine, I'm going to try to take it all? Or is he operating from a different, more aggressive place because of the isolation or something else?

BO LILLIS: Well, no - yes, that's precisely so. But to be perfectly clear, U.S. officials - U.S. intelligence officials have not reached any sort of sweeping new assessment about Putin's world view here. But they are asking the very questions that you are suggesting - that you're suggesting here.

KING: That's a fascinating moment, it's fantastic reporting. Katie Bo Lillis, our entire team, appreciate it very much.

BO LILLIS: Thanks.

KING: When we come back, the world reacts, punishing Russia for its invasion of Ukraine. It's from the sports world, to big oil, and more.

(COMMERCIAL)

[12:55:00]

A closer look now at the devastation following a Russian rocket attack that was detonated directly in front of a government building in Ukraine's second largest city. ITV News Correspondent Dan Rivers has a firsthand look right here from Freedom Square in Kharkiv, after that strike.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAN RIVERS: Well, we're in Freedom Square here in the middle of Kharkiv that was hit by a strike. You can see complete devastation here. The top of this building behind me has been completely taken out, it's just rubble all over the streets, and people wandering around assessing the damage.

Clearly we're not going to loiter here long, but it seems like Russia has switched tactics from trying to hit military targets at the beginning of this war, to now trying to take out symbols of the Ukrainian state. At the moment, though, the response from the Ukrainians has been one of complete defiance.

Kharkiv at the moment is a very, very nervous city, completely devoid of any kind of normal life in the center here. And it is just devastating to see what has happened since we were here, what a couple of weeks ago when this was a normal bustling city. Now it is an absolute shell.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Russia is in a financial meltdown right now as Western countries slam Moscow with sanctions. The Moscow stock exchange suspended trading for a second consecutive day, that after the Russian Ruble dropped. Oil and gas giants now cutting ties. Today, the French company TotalEnergies said it will no longer provide funding for new projects in Russia. BP and Shell, already abandoning all work in Russia.

Plus, two of the world's largest container shipping companies now stopping all bookings to and from Russia. And in the sports world, Adidas, suspended its partnership with the Russian Football Union, effective immediately. That, after FIFA suspended all Russian teams from competing. That was just weeks before the country was set to play one of the final places in this year's World Cup Tournament.

And the International Volleyball Federation, the International Skating Union suspended all Russian athletes from events and competitions. Yesterday the National Hockey League suspended its business ties with Russia. And this personal punishment for Vladimir Putin, World Taekwondo stripping him of an honorary black belt.

A turn now to another big important story today. It is election day in Texas, the first primary of the 2022 election cycle. At the top of the ticket, Republican Governor Greg Abbott, facing challenges in the primary from seven other Republican candidates. Abbott, seeking his third term as Governor.

The governor has spent most of his campaign though, already attacking the Democratic frontrunner, Beto O'Rourke. In the attorney generals race it is a very crowded Republican primary, all of the candidates have raced to embrace former President Donald Trump.

The current Attorney General Ken Paxton is up against Congressman Louie Gohmert, as well as former President George W. Bush's nephew, George P. Bush, and former state Supreme Court Justice Eva Guzman. Paxton was indicted back in 2015, has yet to face trial. He faces allegations of bribery and abuse. While in office he has denied those allegations.

Today's primary, also a test of Progressive power, a rematch between Congressman Henry Cuellar, and Immigration Attorney Jessica Cisneros for a Congressional seat in the southern part of the state. Cisneros has the backing of Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Alexandra Ocasio- Cortez.