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Vance Scolds European Allies Over Immigration, Free Speech; Vance: "Threat From Within" More Dangerous To Europe Than Russia; Now: Vance & Zelenskyy Meet At Munich Security Conference; Mixed Message On Ukraine Coming From Trump, Vance, Hegseth; Seventh Prosecutor Resigns Over Order To Drop Eric Adams Case. Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired February 14, 2025 - 12:00   ET

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

[12:00:00]

DANA BASH, CNN HOST: Today on Inside Politics, parroting Putin, President Trump and top administration officials are blaming the war in Ukraine on Joe Biden and NATO, rather than the country that actually launched an unprovoked invasion of its neighbor, a democracy. It's causing fear across the western world that the U.S. is on the brink of abandoning Ukraine. We're standing by for J. D. Vance, Volodymyr Zelenskyy meeting.

Plus, a seventh prosecutor resigns. We're following the breaking news on the upheaval at the Department of Justice and the mindboggling accusations about prioritizing politics over the rule of law. As exasperated legal experts warn the country is facing real, unchartered territory.

And laughter is a universal stress reliever. So, Broadway and Hollywood star Josh Gad will be my guest for a much-needed Friday palette cleanser.

I'm Dana Bash. Let's go behind the headlines at Inside Politics.

We start in Germany, where J. D. Vance is meeting with the Ukrainian president, and it comes on the heels of his scolding to a room of American allies at the Munich Security Conference. He did that instead of talking about security, the vice president used the opportunity to push one of the Trump administration's favorite topics, culture wars.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

J. D. VANCE, VICE PRESIDENT, UNITED STATES: The threat that I worry the most about vis a vis Europe is not Russia, it's not China, it's not any other external actor. And what I worry about is the threat from within, the retreat of Europe from some of its most fundamental values, values shared with the United States of America.

As it turns out, you can't mandate innovation or creativity, just as you can't force people what to think, what to feel or what to believe. And we believe those things are certainly connected. And unfortunately, when I look at Europe today, it's sometimes not so clear what happened to some of the cold war's winners.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Alex Marquardt is with us from Munich. I mean, I don't even know where to start, Alex. first of all, just the reaction in the room. It sounded from way over here, over the Atlantic, like there wasn't exactly the warmest reaction to the message that he brought.

ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, Dana, you didn't even need to be in the room. You could just see on the cameras, on the live feed, the stunned faces, the stone-faced reception that J. D. Vance got in this blistering speech that really came out swinging against America's closest allies.

We did have some sense ahead of the speech that he was going to be -- going after European politics. But of course, given where we are and the moment, we're in, we did expect him to also be talking about the war in Ukraine and what the U.S. is doing to end that.

Instead, this was not a national security speech. He did not really talk about the adversaries like Russia and China, what they're doing in Europe, what they're doing in the west, what they're doing in the United States. This really was about what he sees as the failures of European democracy.

This really was a broad side against European democracy, criticizing some of the U.S.' closest allies, the U.K., Germany, and others, for what he believes is a crackdown in free speech, a crackdown on social media, a crackdown on the freedom of worship.

And the biggest threat that he sees, he says, is actually not from outside, but from migration. And he pointed specifically to the attack that took place right here in Munich yesterday that was carried out by an Afghan migrant. So, the people inside the room very little applause, stunned silence, reactions starting to trickle in really.

I spoke with one European official who said that this was outright interference. The German defense minister said that defense was essentially describing authoritarian regimes, not European democracies. This was not necessarily. This was not at all, I should say, the kind of speech that we were expecting from the American vice president to some of America's closest friends.

Dana, I'm just trying to imagine the reaction if a top European came to Washington and just lambasted American democracy. It would not go down well, and it's not going down well here either, Dana.

BASH: And then, let's talk about how this very much relates to the broader issue right now, and that is Ukraine and Russia. And the vice president is about to or maybe he just began a meeting with the President of Ukraine, President Zelenskyy. What are you hearing about the expectations there?

[12:05:00]

MARQUARDT: We're hearing from the pool reporters who are traveling with the vice president that the meeting may be underway. We don't have that confirmation from the V.P.' office, but we are expecting to see at least the two men on camera momentarily. And it comes at a time of really fraught relations between the U.S. and Ukraine, because the U.S. has been getting closer to Russia in the past few days.

And there's been a lot of criticism of the Trump administration for essentially offering concessions to the Russians before these negotiations even get started, whether it's Ukrainian membership in NATO and ruling that out, whether it's inviting the Russians back into the G8, which is something that Trump has floated, whether it's ruling out American soldiers being peacekeepers in Ukraine.

That's something that Pete Hegseth, the defense secretary, said the other day. The American Vice President J. D. Vance has been trying to clean that up and essentially walk back some of what Pete Hegseth said, saying essentially that everything is still on the table.

That Donald Trump, at the end of the day will decide what is going to happen, that there are some economic tools, like sanctions that can be used against Russia. There are some military tools that can be used, so perhaps American troops inside of Ukraine as peacekeepers is still on the table.

There will be conversations going forward. Right now, the Ukrainians are saying, we will not speak with the Russians. There's nothing to talk about. And the Ukrainians are demanding that if they're going to be conversations about Ukraine, that they be part of it. You're certainly going to have an intense meeting right now between President Zelenskyy and Vice President J. D. Vance, Dana.

BASH: Yeah. One could only imagine. Alex, thank you so much for joining us from Munich, Germany. Appreciate it. Here at the table, we have some terrific reporters, CNN's David Chalian, Jasmine Wright of NOTUS, Tia Mitchell of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and Josh Dawsey of now the Wall Street Journal. Hello everybody. Happy Valentine's Day. I never met a Hallmark holiday that I didn't love, which is going for it here.

Let's first just kind of really talk about the J. D. Vance speech. I want to talk more broadly, as I did with Alex, about Ukraine and Russia. But the idea that he said, and I just want to quote it back, what we played at the top of the show. You can't force people what to think, what to feel or what to believe.

Where do we start? Let's start David Chalian with the fact that the Associated Press has now been banned from multiple events at the White House because they don't think their journalistic mandate standards should be to outright change the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America. They mention it, but they don't do it. So, I don't know, it looks like that's a news outlet that --

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF & POLITICAL DIRECTOR: A news outlet that has international audiences --

BASH: Correct.

CHALIAN: -- and where international other countries don't recognize the president's executive order. As you said, they reference it. BASH: And now -- but I'm just going to name a couple more because that's definitely not the only one. There was an executive order ending the radical indoctrination of K12 schooling, demanding patriotic education. Don't know what that means. It sounds like that's something that they're telling people what to think.

Never mind the executive order talking about websites and internal documents not have specific words that are associated with DEI when they took over the Kennedy center this week, that president alleged there would be no longer a anti-American agenda or propaganda, and the list goes on and on.

Now, J. D. Vance wanted to be a provocateur. We know that he did this for a reason, so that we would start talking about it, and he wanted to make a point in that room with all those allies. But we can't let irony just continue to die on the vine.

CHALIAN: Yeah. No, I, another quote from the speech, you cannot win a democratic mandate by censoring your opponents are putting them in jail. Whether that's the leader of the opposition, a humble Christian praying in her own home, or a journalist trying to report the news. It is so discord. I mean, take the first part --

BASH: David. I'm sorry.

CHALIAN: No problem.

BASH: Vice President Vance is meeting with Volodymyr Zelenskyy right now, and we're going to go to it now.

VANCE: It's about how we might accomplish that together, and certainly, we'll have many more in the -- in the days, weeks and months to come. President Zelenskyy?

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, PRESIDENT, UKRAINE: Thank you so much. Thank you very much. Very briefly, I think vice president said, everything and absolutely correct. We are very thankful for American support. President Trump, we have good conversation today. Our first meeting, not last, I'm sure.

And really what we need to speak more, to work more, and to prepare the plan, how to stop Putin and finish the work we want. Really, we want this very much, but we need the real security guarantees, and we will continue our meetings and our work, and we will be very happy to see General Kellogg also in Ukraine. And (inaudible), thank you very much vice president. Thank you, colleagues. Thanks so much.

[12:10:00]

VANCE: Great. Thank you all.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Officers reporter in Ukraine is not ready to come to the table with Putin. Ukraine is not ready to speak at the table. How do you move forward? Will you still negotiate? VANCE: Well, look, I think the way that this conversation moves us forward is, first of all, you have great members of the Ukrainian delegation. You have our incredible Secretary of State, Marco Rubio. Here we have General Kellogg. It's important for us to get together and start to have the conversations.

They're going to be necessary to bring this thing to a close. That's all I'm going to say for now because I want to preserve the optionality here from the negotiators and our respective teams to bring this thing to a responsible close. Thank you all. Have great time.

(CROSSTALK)

BASH: OK. So, that's J. D. Vance and other members of the Trump administration delegation meeting with the Ukrainian President Zelenskyy and members of his delegations on the sideline of the Munich Security Conference. I want to put a pin in that because we were already planning to go back to this topic. But please continue because you were saying --

CHALIAN: Well, can we just pick up on what he said?

BASH: Sure.

CHALIAN: Preserve the optionality, it sounds like a direct contradiction from what we saw Pete Hegseth doing a couple days ago. So, it was just interesting to hear Vice President Vance really not want to start putting parameters in place but actually wanting to allow a negotiating conversation to begin at its early stages. I think this is --

BASH: Or he doesn't want to say in front of Zelenskyy that he's capitulate --

CHALIAN: Yeah. Where Pete Hegseth said the quiet part out loud --

BASH: Right.

CHALIAN: J. D. Vance is trying to keep that part quiet again. That's, I think is the translation of what we just saw there. But what I was saying about his comments earlier, Dana, is just that his own words are at such contrast and contradiction to the very actions, you went through a whole list.

But when you talk about -- you can't have a democratic mandate if you're going to jail your opponents. And then President Trump speaks of what he perceives the hell he's been through the last four years due to the indictments and trials against him, and that, you know, others should have to feel that. I mean those two things just -- they don't -- they can't reside in the same thought bubble.

BASH: Well, if nothing matters, then they can reside, but we're still in a place where we want to pretend like things do matter, because, you know, that's what we do for a living. You cover Donald Trump every day in the administration. What are your thoughts? JOSH DAWSEY, POLITICAL INVESTIGATIONS REPORTER, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: On what?

BASH: On what's going on over there with -- let's just again, stay on the J. D. Vance speech. What are you hearing from your sources about the decision to do this? He didn't talk about -- the only thing he said about Russia and China, for that matter, was that they're less of a threat than the enemy from within. And that he meant was, you know, people who are maybe too liberal for the western countries and western governments who are in charge.

DAWSEY: Yeah. I think from a macro perspective, right? Trump said that you would end this war on day one, right? He said he would end the U.S., Russia -- Ukraine war and Russia war on day one. I wasn't able to do that, but he's been talking to Vladimir Putin a lot, sending all his top emissaries over here.

Now, he said, we reported back on the campaign trail. You know, he wouldn't say, exactly I was going to end up, but privately, it involved, you know, some Russia getting keep some territory that they have right now, or at least, sort of not having to recede, right?

And you know, there's concern among some Republicans. You talk to them on Latina, that if you let Russia have anything here, it sends a message that, you know, this kind of behavior can be rewarded. You can actually win out of this.

But Trump, I think, is really impatient to end this war. I mean, everything you think he's sending a treasury secretary. He said, he's sending these guys. This is a promise, and I think he believes his relationship with Putin is very friendly, that he can get something done. And Vladimir Putin has confounded American leaders for a long time. So, we'll see.

BASH: And on that note, I want you to listen to what the president said last night about Russia.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: I don't see any way that a country in Russia's position could allow them, just in their position, could allow them to join NATO. I believe that's the reason the war started because Biden went out and said that they could join NATO, and he shouldn't have said that. As soon as he said that, I said, you know what? You're going to have a war now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[12:15:00]

TIA MITCHELL, WASHINGTON BURAU CHIEF, ATLANTA JOURNAL CONSTITUTION: Well, first of all, that's not accurate. You know that's not why the war started. The war started because Russia invaded Ukraine. And I think that the overarching theme that we're hearing is a lot of -- it seems like capitulating to Russia a lot and now trying to walk it back. And now they're trying to give them the semblance of a good faith negotiation between Russia and Ukraine.

But a few days ago, that's not the perception. The perception was, Russia is in the driving seat, because Putin and Trump have a good relationship, and Ukraine is going to get drug along. So, the question will be, how now does that all play out?

You know, I think what I heard from President Zelenskyy just now is he's trying so hard to, you know, be friendly and be cordial and say all the right things to Vice President Vance, because he knows he's at a disadvantage with the way the Trump administration has talked about this conflict and has talked about Trump's relationship with Putin. And again, right now, they appeared cordial, and V.P. Vance said, yeah, we're going to be able to negotiate. But what's the truth behind closed doors?

BASH: OK. We have to sneak in a quick break. Coming up. We are following breaking news here. On the domestic front, a seventh prosecutor just resigned in protest of a DOJ order to drop a corruption case against the mayor of New York. We're going to break down the scathing allegations after a break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:20:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BASH: We turn now to breaking news in the Justice Department. A seventh prosecutor just resigned over an order to drop the federal corruption charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams. Hagan Scotten was a top deputy to Danielle Sassoon. She was the acting U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, who resigned yesterday.

That's when it all began yesterday, when Sassoon said she'd leave her job over the Trump Justice Department's decision to drop those charges against Adams. She wrote a scathing letter in it, she said, I remain baffled by the rushed and superficial process by which this decision was reached in seeming collaboration with the Adams's council and without my direct input on the ultimate stated rationales for dismissal.

Now the Deputy Attorney General, Emil Bove, who made this all happen, quickly responded. I met with you and the prosecution team, held a separate meeting that involved you, the prosecution team and defense counsel, and then met with you privately in my office. Your recent suggestions about a lack of process around the Justice Department's decisions are not grounded in reality.

Now, just a reminder -- remind you, you see Bove there on the right. He is now the acting deputy attorney general. He, not that long ago, was the president's personal attorney in cases against the president at that. Well, not that, but in New York City.

I want you to watch what the president said about all this. He says, he was in the dark. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did you personally request the Justice Department to drop that case?

TRUMP: No, I didn't. I don't know nothing about it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Now, legal experts are calling this turmoil disturbing and thoroughly unprecedented. My panel is back. And I just want to read. We got a letter just moments ago from the seventh prosecutor who resigned. His name again is Hagan Scotten.

Any assistant U.S. attorney would know that our laws and traditions do not allow using the prosecutorial power to influence other citizens, much less elected officials in this way. If no lawyer with an earshot of the president is willing to give him that advice, then I expect you will eventually find someone who is enough of a fool, or enough of a coward, to file your motion. But it was never going to be me. Jasmine?

JASMINE WRIGHT, POLITICS REPORTER, NOTUS: I mean, it's just extraordinary language. I feel like it's very New York. You know, accusations from Bove saying that these prosecutors are getting too far away from their oath that they took, accusations that this is a political process.

But the reality is that it was always going to come to this. It was always going to be a fight against what Trump wanted to do with his justice department and what individual prosecutors across the country were willing to do, or in this case, weren't willing to do because of Trump's claims that he wanted what he, you know, he said, he wasn't going to take retribution, but that folks who he believed wrong him needed to be, you know, held to justice or held to account.

Now I think this, Eric Adams's issues really interesting. Obviously, we just heard Trump saying, you know, I had no idea about this. I didn't direct it. But obviously, Eric Adams and his team has been cozying up to Trump, to the White House since the election, feeling that it was their best possible chance to get a part. And obviously, they didn't go as far as a part in this time, but they're kind of holding it over his head.

I mean, even if you watch the Fox and Friends interview this morning with Eric Adams and with Tom Homan, the borders are, Homan basically said that, if you don't -- if you don't, you know, continue to hold up our agreement. I'm going to be in your office, up your but, he said --

BASH: On immigration.

WRIGHT: Yes, on immigration.

BASH: Yeah.

WRIGHT: And so, I think that the Eric Adams is a really interesting idea and this kind of got melt down in New York City. But this was always going to happen in some format because of what Trump wants to do with some --

[12:25:00]

BASH: And again, just to take a step back, as you come in Josh. There was always a question about how much the rule of law would be shattered when Donald Trump took office. And this is by far the biggest, and again, nothing is surprising, but the most very clear data point on that because we're not talking about liberal prosecutors.

I mean, I was just told that Hagan Scotten, he was a clerk for John Roberts. The acting U.S. attorney for SDNY, Danielle Sassoon, she is a member of the Federalist Society. She is somebody who went to Harvard and Yale Law School, but she also clerked for Antonin Scalia. She is not exactly known as a liberal prosecutor.

DAWSEY: The argument that Bove is making about why they should not have done this prosecution is really almost preposterous. What he's saying, guys, is that he's not able to carry out his jobs and duties.

And Eric Adams lawyers went to the Department of Justice and said, because of his cases, he's not able to carry out his duties. He would be more able to work with you on immigration, other things, which -- but if you actually look at what Bove said. He's saying that, any elected official now, let's say the mayor, the governor or senator, whoever. If you're under investigation, cannot carry out or under charges, cannot carry out their duties.

So, the Department of Justice has always had prosecutions who said within 60-90 days. It's sort of an unwritten rule, but they don't go after elected officials right around the time of an election, because it does look political. That's what he's saying, sort of here. This happened last. I mean, this happened like months and months and months and months ago. The primary is not for more months.

So, the argument he's making is because he's running for office and because he's an elected official. These cases are keeping them the duties. What sort of case could you ever make in the public integrity division against any sort of leader, a Republican, a Democrat, anyone, if being charged with a crime, for you know, illegal contributions, whatever the case is unable makes you, unable to carry out your duties.

(CROSSTALK)

DAWSEY: If I was Bob man in this, if I was anyone, I would say -- if I was any ally of Trumps, I would say this is a new standard. We don't even evaluate the minutes of the case. We just say, it's harder for me to do my job. I can't carry out my duties.

(CROSSTALK)

BASH: It's the end of public -- it's the end of public corruption investigations --

CHALIAN: As we know it, yeah. BASH: Yeah. If what he's saying is true.

CHALIAN: But what Trump had here right, was the potential to get another very showy immigration win, potentially, and get into rioters, you know, whatever he's going to do, and have that, as well as a political look at the Democratic mayor of my hometown that is now my buddy and with me.

And what he had on the other side was a really willing participant, given his legal circumstances. So, it was a particular brew here of stuff that is just completely out of bounds of the norm of the way that we think of the rule of law being applied to public officials.

MITCHELL: So, I think this is troubling because the perception is that if you cozy up to the president, you're immune from anything, no matter what you do. And so, Eric Adams is -- the perception is the blueprint that he's laying out. You show up, you tell Trump what he wants to hear. You criticize Trump's enemies, and then any troubles you have could possibly go away.

And to me, that's really the takeaway that, unfortunately, I think, some elected officials might be having. Now, clearly these prosecutors are saying, we're concerned about what happens after Trump is no longer able to protect us from these decisions because they may ultimately not reflect well on us professionally. But Trump is president for four years, and this is again the perception that is coming out of this.

BASH: All right, everybody standby. The Trump administration is slashing the work force at the CDC, even as experts are warning of a new bird flu pandemic.

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