Page 111 - Off Ramp News Today

Briefing lawmakers in the house and the senate. want to go live to cnns chief white house correspondent kaitlan collins at the white house for us. do we know what sullivan is telling lawmakers? >> well, adam smith, the chair of the armed services committee, part of that briefing this morning said the main focus of it was really on their efforts to deter russia. the steps theyre taking to try to tamp this down to pursue that off ramp that you heard officials talk about so much. but, of course, th...

If he decides to attack, he doesnt. he can say i was just there for an exercise. what the hell is nato all concerned about? why are we beating the drums of war in the west when all we were doing was exercising with belarus and our partners. >> thats right. and everyone should know that there was a hard and fast end date. it is over the next few days that the exercises would end and there is that off-ramp. i understand as part of existing u.s. presidents and nato, but still, more u.s. troops have...

They should keep their hands out of what is happening there, especially sending troops to ukraine. there are some members of the republican party who say troops should not be heading there, we should mind our own business, we have all of these different inactions in the senate and how theyre moving forward. for the time being, as far as this briefing is concerned, theyre hoping to get the latest information and the next steps of what the u.s. can do, hallie. >> with developments happening every ...

Right direction, and we need to give people hope. we need to have an off ramp with these same restrictions were putting in. there are definitely people who arent happy with this point of view. theyre saying, look, we may have new variants come up in the future, so lets guard against that. i agree we should have better treatments, we should have more testing, make sure we have high quality masks, we should do everything to protect the most vulnerable, including those immunocompromised. but at the...

There is a whole lot of talking, right? president biden meeting with german chancellor, french president emmanuel macron with vladimir putin. conducting shuttle diplomacy. going to kyiv, now. what do you think will come of all of this? do you think that putin might want some kind of off ramp here? >> you know, i think right now, if you look at the conversation that took place with president macron, i think its president putin saying keep em guessing. keep him guessing. i mean, i looked really ca...

O oof diplomacy open. we want to de-escalate and prevent this from happening. but thats up to president putin. >> reporter: and we have not heard about talk of an invasion being imminent. the president said if he had to guess, he would believe that russia would go into ukraine. but today, in an interview with npr, the u.s. ambassador to the united nations said she wouldnt use the word imminent. theyre still trying to give russia this diplomatic off-ramp. and there was some hope from u.s. officia...

Of invadinge ing countries, hee it in ukraine, in georgia, re-establishing a circle of influence, a sphere of influence around russia here. hes got a lot of pride. he fancies himself a strong man, what do you envision then as the credible off ramp here? >> well, we cant get putin what he has publicly demanded. were not going to pull our troops out of europe. were not going to say that countries like ukraine, sovereign independent countries nt get to choose their alliances that they have to be su...

Concern over safety for teachers and kids obviously, but take chicago a few weeks ago which the teachers were out for a few days. 90 percent of the teachers in that union there were vaccinated. with those vaccination rates, what dr. mcbride just told us about masks not particularly being effective for teacher, what is the argument against taking off masks in schools? >> well, the argument is that you have -- let me just say this. i am in favor of an off ramp on masks. >> right. >> the real issue...

In terms of the basis for it. he said that vaccinations are up in new jersey, that the numbers, community spread is really low now, and the spread in schools is really low. >> yeah. >> so, you know, what we asked for in november, and im glad you have lucy on as well, is a metric that was based in science so that we could ultimately have an off ramp for masks. no one wants masks in schools, not teachers, not students. but, you know, it is time in this covid pandemic to actually do a little bit of...

I absolutely believe if theyre putting it out on television, its because theyre seeing it in the intelligence. >> you worked at the cia and dod. you have experience in knowing how knew this is. my question for you is, as youre getting all this out there, so putin risks being exposed as a liar, saying he wasnt going to invade and then he invades. does he care about being exposed as a liar on the national stage? >> i think his achilles heel is what his own people think of him. the more it seeks in...