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Pompeo to Announce Treaty Withdrawal; Pompeo Speech on Withdrawal; January Jobs Report; Lawsuit against Purdue Pharma. Aired 8:30-9a ET

Aired February 1, 2019 - 08:30   ET

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


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:30:59] JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, breaking news.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is about to announce the United States will withdrawal from a nuclear arms treaty with Russia. The suspension of the INF treaty is raising concerns about the possibility of a new arms race.

Joining us now is retired Rear Admiral John Kirby. He was a State Department spokesperson under President Obama. He's now a CNN military and diplomatic analyst.

Admiral, thank you so much for being with us.

Let's talk about what exactly is happening here. The INF treaty is Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces treaty. It has to do with missiles that reach up to about 3,000 miles, I think.

REAR ADMIRAL JOHN KIRBY (RET.), CNN MILITARY AND DIPLOMATIC ANALYST: Right.

BERMAN: The administration charge or claim is that the Russians have been basically breaking the terms of this treaty for years. And there is plenty of evidence of that.

KIRBY: That's right.

BERMAN: In terms of the Russians, what's the significance coming out this morning and saying, you know what, we're done with this?

KIRBY: Well, it's a -- it's a move, I think, to try to pressure them back into compliance. Remember that even -- even if Pompeo comes out and says we're suspending today, which we expect he'll say, there's still a six-month withdrawal process. So you still buy yourself a few months here for the Russians to do the right thing and destroy these missiles and remove these capabilities.

Now, I don't think that's very likely. And the Russians have said publicly in, as recently as just a few months ago, that they don't believe that the INF treaty is in their best national security interest. So I think getting a change of behavior out of them is likely, but I do think that's what the administration is trying to do today, try to, you know, lay it on the table and pressure them one last time to come into compliance.

HILL: How much is this about Russia, how much of this is actually about China?

KIRBY: Yes, great question. I think actually it's both. It is certainly about Russia. We have known and we knew at the end of the Obama administration we had been pressuring Russia to get back into compliance. They now have four battalions of these 9M729 missile systems which are of intermediate range and violating the treaty.

But it also is a recognition that China, which is not a party of the INF treaty, has been developing missiles of similar range and capability on their own. And so the argument that the administration is making is, look, the treaty binds us. Obviously it's not binding Russia because they're violating it. But it also keeps our hands tied in meeting the threat by China. So I think very much it's about both.

BERMAN: One of the questions you could ask here, and this does get to China, the idea that China is doing this in a way that the United States can't stop it, is, what is the use of a bilateral treaty --

KIRBY: Right.

BERMAN: You know, a bipolar treaty in a multipolar or a multilateral world?

KIRBY: It's a great question, John. And I think you have to remember the time and space in which the INF treaty was signed. 1987, Ronald Reagan, of course it was -- we were still at the height of the Cold War. There was really only one other nation state on earth that -- that we needed to protect against these kinds of missiles, and that was, of course, the Soviet Union, now Russia. China didn't have those capabilities, didn't have the economic and military power that -- that would have allowed them to develop them back then. So it was in time and space.

But I do think you raise a good point, which is the value of multilateral treaties. And this is one thing that bothers me about the decision the administration is making today is, it's in keeping with their disdain for multilateral agreements and multilateral commitments. And I think what -- what I would like to see them do, in the time that they have now to work forward in the next few months is, is try to get not only Russia back into compliance, but try to develop a treaty framework that would bring China into this.

Now, how likely that is, I don't know. But I think it's important that in this multipolar world, as you described it, we do need more multilateral agreements to kind of keep everybody in compliance.

HILL: Well, there's also concern from European allies, right? This has them on edge. And understandably so.

KIRBY: Absolutely. Absolutely. Look, these missiles are really -- the ones that the Russians have are a threat to the European continent. They're not a threat to the American -- to North America at all because of their range. No more than 3,000 miles. Look, we got -- we should listen to Pompeo, I guess.

MIKE POMPEO, SECRETARY OF STATE: Very simple truths. The security of the American people must be our greatest consideration. The agreements to which we enter must serve American interests. And countries must be held accountable when they break the rules.

[08:35:04] For years, Russia has violated the terms of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces treaty without remorse.

BERMAN: There you go. The Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, admiral, telling us that he thinks Russia has violated the terms of the treaty. He is announcing the United States will suspend it.

It gets to the question -- the question, I think, that everyone wants to know, admiral, is, does this mean a new arms race? The INF treaty in 80s, 1987, is seen as one of the pillars --

KIRBY: Right.

BERMAN: In a way of the end of the Cold War. Does this mean that we're going to enter willy-nilly into massive nuclear build-ups?

KIRBY: I hope not, John, but I think to a degree we all need to come to face the reality that in some ways we already -- we are already in an arms race. China is already developing these capabilities, as well as strategic nuclear capabilities. You've got the North Koreans and, of course, the Russians have not only been developing these intermediate range missiles, but hypersonic and more strategic nuclear capable missiles as well. So we're already in a bit of an arms race now.

When the Pentagon announced the missile defense review just a couple of weeks ago, the acting defense secretary, Shanahan, I think said it very well. Because the United States military is so capable, because we are so far flung, we are so forward deployed, we have such great conventional and strategic nuclear capability, that other adversaries, less capable, like Russia, like China, like North Korea, have been left to develop missile technology as a way to deter and defeat or to deny American military forces access to their spheres of influence, what those spheres they might happen to believe are. So they are developing missile technology, sometimes at a faster clip and a little bit more advanced that what we're developing on our own. And so I think, to a degree, we all have to come to grips with this reality that missile technology and the missile threat is not going anywhere any time soon.

I think the missile defense review that the Pentagon did was well timed. It was overdue. And I think it was comprehensive enough. I am worried about just a withdrawal from the INF treaty for that exact same reason. I think it's better to try to negotiate nations into compliance with these requirements than to bully them into pursuing them more aggressively, which is what might happen. Putin does not think this treaty is in his national interest. He's already violating it. We pull out, it just gives him a freer hand.

BERMAN: Do you have a sense of if this means new nuclear deployment from the U.S. and where exactly?

KIRBY: I don't know if it's going to -- I don't know that. I mean and I don't know if the Pentagon knows it.

What I do think, though, John, and your question raises a great point, is, if -- if we pull out of this and we then have to start to develop these intermediate range nuclear-capable missiles, a system -- a system of systems that we don't have right now. We also are going to then have to find a way, the money and the resources, to deploy them. Because you can have all of them you want here in the United States and it's not going to protect you from the threat to your European allies that those missiles pose from Russia. It's certainly not going to protect your Asia-Pacific allies from the threat that Chinese missiles pose.

So you're going to have to not only develop the system, but you're going to have to develop the deployment of them, which means you need resources, which means you also need bases overseas to do that.

BERMAN: Admiral Kirby, thank you very, very much. Appreciate you helping us understand what's going on here. It is a significant step in the arms development of this country.

KIRBY: It is very much.

BERMAN: All right, we have breaking news.

The Labor Department just released the January jobs report. A bafo (ph) jobs report I think is the technical term.

CNN's Christine Romans joins us now with the numbers.

Romans.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: It's a really good report. I mean starting this year, with a lot of hiring across the board, we've got 304,000 net new jobs in January. So just shrugging off the government shutdown and private industry hiring now.

This is 100 months in a row of job creation, you guys. That's really remarkable.

You saw the unemployment rate tick up just a tiny bit, but this is still considered a generational low there. And look, again, for years now you have seen strong job creation. It shows no sign of letting down here.

Wages, by the way, up 3.2 percent. We've now seen three months in a row of strong wage growth. That's been missing in so much of the recovery of the past decade. So watch to see if that continues. Love to see that there.

Again, across the sectors. Warehouses, transportation companies, offices, you've seen leisure and hospitality. Huge gains in bar and restaurant jobs. Construction jobs and health care, again, 42,000 net new jobs there. So, again, this is a strong labor market report. And we've seen, after

last year, 2.6 million new jobs. That pace is continuing at the beginning of the year, you guys.

BERMAN: A strange, big downward revision for December, right? It went downward 100,000 jobs drop. How much does the shutdown figure into this? Do we have to look at these numbers and say, hey, while they may be adjusted next report?

ROMANS: You will see, in the private contractors, that's where you're going to see it because what the government did here is they counted workers who worked for the government but weren't working as employed. They were not counted as unemployed.

Also, we know from yesterday we saw a jobless claims number that was near a 49-year low. That's people who are filing for first time unemployment benefits. It's really almost unheard of. That's just such a low number.

[08:40:06] So we are seeing a strong job market here. You know, private companies, public companies are hiring. The economy remains strong. It remains a good market for workers, especially with those wage numbers. We will look, though, to see if there is some sort of reverb in those numbers next month.

BERMAN: And, just last question, because the Fed gave us this weird signal this week where they may take a pause in its move of interest rates. Doesn't all this data indicate that maybe that pause shouldn't be so long?

ROMANS: It's so interesting. There's this big conversation about, did Wall Street -- did the stock market bully the Fed into being too cautious here this year? These numbers would suggest this is still a roaring economy. And that's something that has concerned policymakers in the past.

HILL: Christine Romans with the latest. Thank you. Happy belated birthday.

ROMANS: Oh, thank you.

BERMAN: It was her birthday yesterday. Happy birthday, Romans.

HILL: Yes.

All right, stay with us. We'll be right back.

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HILL: The opioid crisis kills 131 Americans every day. And according to a new, unredacted lawsuit, pharmaceutical giant Purdue Pharma has knowingly profited off the country's addiction problem for decades, all while downplaying the public health crisis.

[08:45:06] CNN's Miguel Marquez joins us this morning with more. MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, the attorney general of

Massachusetts saying this is an audacious plan by the -- by the company to both sell the drug and to sell the cure. The nearly 300- page complaint against Perdue Pharma and its owners, the Sacklers, one of America's richest families, outlines how the company secretly pursued a plan it dubbed project Tango, to become a, quote, end to end pain provider.

So, what does that mean? The company allegedly examined selling overdose antidotes, like Narcan, as, quote, complementary products to the same doctors it sold opioids to, including the highly addictive painkiller, OxyContin. Citing internal documents, the lawsuit shows that the company referred to drug dependent people as, quote, attractive markets that could earn the company billions.

The Massachusetts attorney general whose office filed the suit also accusing the Sackler family of deceiving doctors and patients about OxyContin's risks and profiting off the sale of the drug while blaming the terrible consequences on the people who actually became addicted to them. The complaint cites a confidential 2001 e-mail from former Purdue chairman and president Richard Sackler, who wrote, we have to hammer on the abusers in every way possible. They are the culprits and the problem. They are the reckless criminals.

The lawsuit includes a chart that shows that the Sackler family paid themselves more than $4 billion in opioid profits between 2008 and 2016. Purdue lost a legal battle to keep the contents of this complaint private, telling CNN the Massachusetts attorney general's decision to release the full complaint is, quote, part of a continuing effort to blame it for the entire opioid crisis and try the case in the court of public opinion rather than the justice system, adding, Massachusetts seeks to publicly vilify Purdue, its executives, employees and directors, while unfairly undermining the important work we have taken to address the opioid addiction crisis.

Eight members of the Sackler family, as well as current and former executives, are named in this suit.

Back to you guys.

BERMAN: You can see why it was of interest of them for it to be private and not made public.

HILL: There's a lot in there.

MARQUEZ: It's -- I mean you go through the suit to see what was redacted and what is now out there, it's -- it's very obvious and shocking

BERMAN: All right, Miguel Marquez, thank you so much for being with us this morning and helping us understand this. Appreciate it.

All right, you might have heard, this Sunday there is a football game. The New England Patriots are playing -- a team. If you're not into football, though, it is team Ruff versus team Fluff.

HILL: Yes!

BERMAN: The Puppy Bowl pups.

HILL: Yes!

BERMAN: This is good news for everybody. Earth loves this. The Puppy Bowl here, next.

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[08:52:40] HILL: A small army of security will be protecting the one million visitors who have made their way to Atlanta for Super Bowl LIII. A Blackhawk helicopter, bomb sniffing dogs, thousands of cameras, all out there for Sunday's big game.

CNN "EARLY START" anchor Dave Briggs is live in Atlanta with a preview of the big game.

Good morning, my friend.

DAVE BRIGGS, CNN ANCHOR, "EARLY START": Good morning, guys. Nice jerseys. Very good.

The Patriots and Rams have had just two weeks to prepare for this Super Bowl. But for 65 local, state and federal agencies, the security game plan is two years in the making. Officials expect more than one million people to visit the Super Bowl festivities down here in downtown Atlanta. And to protect that, a quarter mile barrier has been established all around Mercedes Benz Stadium here behind me where 13 of the 15 events are within this border. And it's marked by more than seven miles of fencing.

In the skies above the stadium, the Blackhawk helicopter you mentioned, also numerous police drones, they'll enforce a 30-mile no- fly zone all around the stadium all weekend long. Every arriving truck here gets an x-ray inspection by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers. Everywhere you look, there are bomb-sniffing dogs, even at my hotel this morning.

Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen was here this week. She said there are no known threats to the Super Bowl.

So, those 71,000 fans here, they can feel safe. And safe assured many of them will be rooting for the Rams, John. I'm sorry about that. There are two groups, the group from New England and the group that hates the Patriots.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I want the Patriots to win. So I have to root for the Rams.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Who's playing in it again? Definitely the Rams. I can't believe, you know, every year we've got to watch the Patriots in the Super Bowl, you know? Get somebody else new in there like the Rams. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I got the Rams, you know, because the Patriots beat

my Falcons in the Super Bowl. Yes, with a burning passion I hate the Patriots.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I've never hated a team more in my life.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRIGGS: Samuel Adams Brewery, though, has a reminder for all those haters. The goat is too old, too slow and still here. It's not even 9:00 a.m., but cheers to you guys. It should be an exciting weekend for the Patriots and the Rams and their fans.

BERMAN: All right.

[08:55:00] HILL: Let me -- oh, well, cheers to you. Let me tell you, it's going to be hard to top the excitement that's happening right here right now, Dave Briggs.

BERMAN: I know. Dave Briggs, the beer is part of the job. I understand it, Dave. I get it.

All right, Dave, thank you very much.

BRIGGS: Cheers. All right.

HILL: This is amazing.

BERMAN: All right, be sure to watch Dave Briggs, by the way, "Kickoff in Atlanta," on CNN "Bleacher Report" special with Dave, Hines Ward, Coy Wire, tomorrow at 2:30 p.m. Eastern right here on CNN.

Now, the reason it's hard for us to talk, the other big showdown tomorrow. Team Ruff versus team Fluff, Puppy Bowl XV airs this Sunday on Animal Planet.

HILL: I like your football voice, John Berman.

Joining us, Eli, who's in my lap here, a 12 week collie mix, Tanner and Tessa are flanking me. They're 9-week-old labs -- lab husky mixes. They're siblings. Zucker, interestingly enough, not only the name of our boss, also the name of the puppy that John Berman is holding.

BERMAN: Zucker, by the way, has been freaking out because I asked him for a raise.

HILL: Yes.

BERMAN: Look at this.

HILL: Is that what is open now.

BERMAN: That's why he's licking my face.

HILL: But now he's kissing John. So, there we go.

BERMAN: That's right.

HILL: Apparently your raise is good.

BERMAN: Yes.

HILL: Thank you. Jeff, I'll take one, too.

Also, we have Tizzy, an 11-week-old boxer mix. These are the cutest dogs ever and they're also all up for adoption.

BERMAN: That's right. They're all here on behalf of the Danbury Animal Welfare Society website. For info on how to adopt them, visit the Danbury Animal Welfare Society website, Daws.org.

HILL: There are 93 puppies who will be participating. I could read you more of the notes, but --

BERMAN: They're being eaten.

HILL: We're in real life. Tessa ate my homework. I've never been able to say that before.

BERMAN: The dog ate my homework.

HILL: They are from shelters all across the U.S., including Puerto Rico, also Costa Rica. I'm told that' there's actually a halftime show involving cats. The Atlanta acro-cats.

BERMAN: Yes. You know, for Sunday's Puppy Bowl, we should say they work with 51 different animal shelters to rescue -- and rescue organizations all across the United States, Costa Rica, Puerto Rico. It's on 3:00 p.m. Sunday on Animal Planet. The Puppy Bowl, it's great. They're almost as cute as Tom Brady.

HILL: Almost as cute as John's man crush.

BERMAN: Almost as cute as Tom Brady.

Airs this Sunday, 3:00 p.m. Eastern on Animal Planet. Thank you all so much.

There's a lot more news coming up. And my face has to get licked a whole lot more.

We'll be right back.

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