U.S. Suspends Nuclear Arms Control Treaty with Russia
BOLDUAN: It is official. The U.S. is suspending a landmark nuclear arms control treaty with Russia, a treaty that kept nuclear missiles out of Europe for decades. A treaty that has been a centerpiece of security at large in Europe since the Cold War. Now, no more. Here is what the secretary of state said this morning in making this announcement.</s>MIKE POMPEO, SECRETARY OF STATE: Russia has refused to take any steps to return real and verifiable compliance over these 60 days. The United States will therefore suspend its obligations under the INF Treaty effective February 2.</s>BOLDUAN: CNN national security reporter, Kylie Atwood, is at the State Department for us. Kylie, what did this treaty do and what does it mean that the U.S. is pulling out?</s>KYLIE ATWOOD, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY REPORTER: This treaty prevented the U.S. and Russia from developing a certain type of missile. Now that the U.S. is pulling out of the treaty, both the U.S., Russia and China are going to continue developing this missile. And the fear, of course, is that creates an arms race, which was once prevented by the treaty. A senior administration official was asked about an arms race launching today because of this U.S. decision, and essentially said, if there's an arm's race, it is Russia's fault, pointing a finger back again at Russia for the decision that the Trump administration has made today. But it is the Obama administration, past government officials that have said that Russia is in violation of the INF Treaty, for years, dating back to 2013. This isn't a new development. What is new is the U.S. pulling out and what are going to be the repercussions of that. The other thing to consider is China here. Secretary Pompeo did not mention China when he said the U.S. would be pulling out of the treaty today. But a senior administration official noted that China is unconstrained in this area of missile development. They have over 1,000 missiles. And the U.S. now can compete with them in this space. That is a very, very scary reality for folks, who are saying, what is the U.S. going to be doing. What kind of pressures is it going to be under to compete with China and to compete with Russia? And what challenges does that mean for Europeans who are within missile- launching range of Russia and China?</s>BOLDUAN: Now raising more questions with this big move. Kylie, thank you so much. Really appreciate it. Joining me now, Kelly Magsamen, a former senior Asia policy official at the Pentagon under President Obama, now with the Center for American Progress. Kelly, it's good to see again. With this announcement from Secretary Pompeo, he makes the point that Russia has been violating the agreement for years. What then is the risk that they run for pulling out if they haven't been complying?</s>KELLY MAGSAMEN, VICE PRESIDENT FOR NATIONAL SECURITY, INTERNATIONAL POLICY, CENTER FOR AMERICAN PROGRESS & FORMER SENIOR ASIA POLICY OFFICIAL, PENTAGON: Yes. I think this is a pretty destabilizing move potentially. It's not just destabilizing in Europe but also in Asia, given the China angle.</s>BOLDUAN: Yes.</s>MAGSAMEN: It is like opening a Pandora's box and in that box is a bunch of potential nuclear missiles. So I think the big question for the Trump administration is what comes next. What are the plans for developing and fielding missiles in Europe and in Asia? What does that mean for our allies and partners? Some may not want to field those missiles in their countries. I think there are a lot of unanswered questions from the Trump administration.</s>BOLDUAN: That is key. What goes in its place? If the INF is done, what goes in its place? For you, from what you see and what you have heard, it's not clear to you?</s>MAGSAMEN: It's not clear to me what the plans are. There have been some discussion of potentially modifying conventional missiles that we have in our arsenal, for example, the Tomahawk missile and potentially fielding that missile in areas of Asia, including Guam. It's not very clear. I don't think the administration has articulated what the plans are to our allies either.</s>BOLDUAN: There also this remarkable thing that is playing out with regard to the country's national security. The country's national security and intelligence leaders testifying before the Senate on Tuesday. They publicly contradict some of the president's publicly stated positions on key issues like ISIS, like North Korea, like Iran. The next day, the president tweets them that they're naive, wrong, and suggests they go back to school. That was then Wednesday. Now the president says there's no contradiction and claims that the intel chiefs and here on the same page. I want to play what the president said about this yesterday.</s>DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I didn't see the report from the intelligence. When you read it, it is a lot different than was covered in the news. He said they were totally misquoted and they were totally -- it was taken out of context. So what I do is I suggest that you call them. They said it was fake news.</s>BOLDUAN: So there's a lot there that we should probably get through. You have been in the position of putting together these assessments. Do you see Gina Haspel and Dan Coats telling the president that the contradictions, which you can see publicly, because they were public, do you see them calling it fake news?</s>MAGSAMEN: Absolutely not. This actually really worries me that the president called them into the Oval Office, had a photo op where they said they basically agreed with him. Again, this is a pattern of the president politicizing our Intelligence Community, our military. This is a constant pattern from him. It really undermines our national security institutions. I just can't imagine that Dan Coats or Gina Haspel or intelligence professionals and political professionals would ever do that.</s>BOLDUAN: That's where we land today. Great to see you, Kelly. Thank you so much. I really appreciate it.</s>MAGSAMEN: Thank you.</s>BOLDUAN: Coming up for us, can a federal judge keep Roger Stone away from a camera? We may find out the answer to that today as Stone heads back to court. That's next.