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At This Hour

Ukraine's Capital Kyiv Under Attack As Russians Advance; Russian Protest Attack On Ukraine Despite Risk Of Arrest; First On CNN: Biden To Nominate Ketanji Brown Jackson To Supreme Court. Aired 11-11:30a ET

Aired February 25, 2022 - 11:00   ET

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

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[11:00:23]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Hello everyone, I'm Kate Bolduan. We want to welcome our viewers here in the United States and around the world. We are following two historic moments. At this hour, the capital of Ukraine is under attack. U.S. intelligence officials are now concerned, Kyiv could fall to Russian forces within days. Fighting is reported just miles out from the center of the city now. And one Ukrainian official is warning that the city has already been hit by missiles. Despite this, Ukraine's president and its people remain defiant, one example that is becoming something of a rallying cry for the resistance, the moment when 13 Ukrainian guards refuse to surrender to an approaching Russian warship. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Speaking in Foreign Language).

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BOLDUAN: Ukrainian government now reports all of those soldiers defending what's known as Snake Island, all of those guards were killed. Ukraine's President says he is Russia's number one target and he is making a new public appeal for direct talks with Vladimir Putin. But Ukraine's former president is telling CNN today that Putin cannot be reasoned with and is calling for more support from allies. Listen.

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PETRO POROSHENKO, FORMER PRESIDENT OF UKRAINE: He's just simply mad. He is just simply crazy. I just wanted to clear, Putin will not stop Ukraine. You know, a movement to the European Union. And that's exactly why we shall secure Ukraine today and to support Ukraine and we stand tomorrow. And I call on the man of facing poor Russian in the West to come to Ukraine support today.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: To the other breaking news story that we are following, CNN has learned that President Biden plans to nominate Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court. If confirmed, she will be the first black woman in U.S. history to sit on the High Court. The formal announcement expected this afternoon. And we're going to have much more on that in just a moment.

Let's start with the war in Ukraine. As you can see, CNN is covering every angle of this. CNN's Matthew Chance is live in Kyiv, the country's capital under very serious threat now. Matthew, what are you seeing right now?

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it is very, very quiet in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv right now Kate. But, you know, the whole city is braced for the possibility of more of the kinds of airstrikes and rocket attacks that we've been witnessing here over the course of the past 48 hours, they have been intensive, more so because more tension because within a few miles now on the outskirts of the city, and actually, sometimes in -- within the bounds of the city limits. There are now Russian forces that have been clashing with Ukrainian security forces to the north of this position right here where I'm staying now just over there in that direction.

There have been fierce clashes between Ukrainian security forces and Russian troops that have positioning themselves on the outskirts of the city. And of course, we know the Russian special forces groups, securing, already have secured they say, key aviation sites, an airbase we went to a couple of days ago, of course, and actually met those Russian forces there.

The concern is, the strategy seems to be to surround the entire Ukrainian capital, and then, you know, move into it and seize control of it. Amid all of that, there have been calls from Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukrainian President, for peace talks that to save people's lives. That call, at first seem to have been answered by Vladimir Putin, the Ukrainian President, with RIA Novosti, the state media, one of the state leaders in Russia, quoting his spokesman saying, look, OK, you know, and I'm paraphrasing slightly, but if you want to talk about neutrality of Ukraine, we will send delegates from the Foreign Ministry and Defense Ministry and others, to the Belarusian capital of Minsk, to meet your delegates to discuss that.

It was a, you know, first sort of hopeful sign. But since then, Vladimir Putin has come out with some incredibly, you know, let's say aggressive remarks calling on the Ukrainian military to rise up against the government. Don't let the Neo Nazis use your wives, children, and old people as human shields, he said. Take power from the drug addicts and Neo Nazis that have settled in Kyiv and taking hostage of the entire Ukrainian people. So those are not peacemaking words tonight coming from the Kremlin, Kate.

[11:05:04]

BOLDUAN: Not at all. Matthew, thank you very much for your continued reporting. Let's go to Russia right now we're thousands of people are taking to the streets to protest and now risking being thrown in jail. Demonstrations breaking out in cities all across that country, as many Russians are voicing their shock and anger at Putin's war. CNN's Nic Robertson is live in Moscow for us this hour. Nic, what are these protesters, what are they saying and what are they facing now?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: They don't want their country to go to war. They don't want it in their name. Over 1,700 were arrested yesterday, more than a thousand of those in Moscow. The protests that we saw on the streets last night, the police riot clad police, if you will, were throwing protesters literally up against the side of their police vehicles heavily frisking and searching them, throwing them inside the back of their vehicles and wrestling the message from the government is not only could you be arrested, not only could you face criminal charges, but this can actually affect the rest of -- the whole of the rest of your life.

So, a lot of protesters coming out for such a short notice protests, I got to speak to some of them just away from the sort of watching eye of the police. They -- this is what they told me.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I cannot express how much pain we feel now. It hurts because it's our friends, our relatives.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm just scared, shocked, and I don't believe to our government.

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ROBERTSON: Yes, so one young lady told me she said I just want to leave Russia. She said I -- but it hurts. I love Russia. The tears were rising in her eyes when she said that. But I just don't like the leadership. So you see section of the community here that's hurt by -- that feels very hurt by the invasion. But we shouldn't fool ourselves. About 50 percent of the population still support President Putin and his aim to put military force into Ukraine to take control of Ukraine.

And we heard from President Putin today, just as Matthew was saying there on one of the perhaps troubling pieces of language that we've heard coming from Russian officials today, the spokesman from the Kremlin speaking just short -- a short time ago and the Ministry of Defense, saying that the Ukrainian military is now hiding their military hardware in civilian neighborhoods.

Until now, the Russian government has been saying that they're only targeting the military, but they seemed to be opening the door now for targeting those civilian neighborhoods, the rhetoric President Putin is using, well, just listen to it here.

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PRES. VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIA (through translator): Do not let Banda rights and Neo Nazis use your children, wives, and old people as human shields. Take power into your own hands. It looks like it will be easier for us to come to an agreement than with this gang of drug addicts and Neo Nazis that has settled in Kyiv and taken hostage the entire Ukrainian people.

(END VIDEO CLIP) ROBERTSON: Putin again seeming to be out of touch with the reality on the ground in Kyiv and the rest of Ukraine. But a very ominous that his officials are saying that Ukraine's military forces are hiding military hardware in civilian neighborhoods, because we've seen Russia use this playbook before say that the military is doing X -- it's not our fault. It would appear to be that what they're trying to establish if we have to now target civilian neighborhoods, and I think we're all aware of what that means. Kate?

BOLDUAN: Exactly. Further, further danger, a serious threat to civilians, all of them. Thank you. We're going to get back to Nic in a little while.

Now to Washington in the White House, President Biden held a meeting this morning with NATO leaders as they plot their next move against Vladimir Putin. Jeremy Diamond is live at the White House for us. Jeremy, what came from that meeting? What are you learning? And what more can we expect?

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, listen, Kate. We haven't yet gotten a readout from the White House about that meeting. But the goal of it was very clear, it is to continue to try and show this united front of -- from the United States and its NATO allies from the West really as a whole and its efforts to not only punish Putin for this invasion of Ukraine, but to try and make him as President Biden said yesterday, a pariah in the international community.

We saw yesterday, President Biden issuing a series of severe and significant sanctions more far reaching than what we had seen from the United States after Russia's invasion of Crimea in 2014. But there are still major questions about what more the United States and Europe can do to not only punish Russia for this behavior but whether any of these sanctions can actually change Putin's calculus going forward, perhaps make him retreat from this ongoing invasion of Ukraine.

We heard President Biden yesterday saying that he still believed that these sanctions will affect Putin's calculus, and that they could change his behavior but that it will indeed take time. We know from senior officials here that the broader goal is to make this Russian invasion of Ukraine a strategic failure for Vladimir Putin. And now the question is will those sanctions change his calculus. And secondly, what more can we expect. We saw the European Union today sanctioning Putin himself and Lavrov. We know President Biden himself, so that sanctioning Putin was something on the table. Kate?

[11:10:15]

BOLDUAN: What more can they do? It's good to see Jeremy, thank you very much.

So in announcing another round of sanctions against Moscow, President Biden, he vowed to make Putin a quote, pariah. Other world leaders, as Jeremy was just getting at, are taking action against Russia as well. But there are real questions about the impact of these sanctions and also how much further the West is willing to go. CNN's Kylie Atwood is live at the State Department for us. Kylie, what more could be coming?

KYLIE ATWOOD, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, listen, Kate, I think looking at what the E.U. did today is a great indicator because the Biden administration has repeatedly said that they are going to act alongside their European partners when it comes to rolling out these costs on Russia. So let's just look at what the United States has already done, right?

Yesterday, they announced they were announcing new sanctions going after five Russian financial institutions, cutting them off from the U.S. financial system. That is a major step. They also went after other Russian oligarchs and elites. And significantly, they went after U.S. exports into Russia of high technology things. This is an effort to try and go after Russia's defense sector, their space sector so that they can't advance as quickly as they had been, because they were reliant on U.S. technology.

And there are other areas, however, that the Biden administration hasn't touched yet. And I just want to go through those because those are areas to look at. Swift, that is a global messaging system for banking. And if you took Russia off that it makes it incredibly hard for Russia to carry out any of its financial transactions. Now, President Biden said yesterday that Europeans aren't on board for that. So we'll watch to see if they get on board if the United States pushes for that, because we know that that's something specifically that Ukrainians are really asking for right now.

BOLDUAN: Kylie, thank you very much.

Still ahead for us, our coverage of the invasion of Ukraine by Russian forces much more to come, as NATO considers its options for countering the attack on Ukraine. And also this, a historic day in the United States, this afternoon, President Biden will nominate the first black woman to serve on the Supreme Court, if she is confirmed. We'll be right back.

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[11:16:48]

BOLDUAN: We are keeping a very close eye on Ukraine right now. The Russian attack playing out in the north, the south east, and west of the country at this point, the battle underway right now for the capital city of Kyiv. But while we watch that, we also want to turn to our other breaking news this hour. A historic day here in the United States, President Biden is set to nominate D.C. Circuit Court Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to be the next Supreme Court justice. CNN was first to report this. Let's get to CNN's Jeff Zeleny, who has the details. What's the latest Jeff?

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kate, good morning. We do you know that President Biden will be at a White House ceremony this afternoon presenting his nominee to the Supreme Court his first nomination to the Supreme Court Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson. He extended the offer we were told last evening in a brief telephone call. This comes after he interviewed her earlier this month at the White House, a meeting that went under everyone's radar at the time.

But the President has been spending a long time more than a year reading her writings, her opinions, as well as some other finalists. But he settled on her in the end, in one part because of her vast experience rising from a public defender to the federal bench. She's also been confirmed three times by the Senate on a narrow bipartisan vote as recently as last year. So this is something the White House hopes and believes that she will get a fair confirmation, and they believe they can attract at least some Republicans to support her.

But Kate, that, of course, is very much an open question. Republicans already are not necessarily attacking her credentials or experience, that's difficult to do. But just saying she simply is too liberal for the position. But we should point out that she was a clerk for Justice Breyer. She's replacing Justice Breyer on the court if she would be confirmed. So this is not going to change the makeup of the court, but certainly in a historic way changes so much.

And this announcement this afternoon comes two years to the day that Joe Biden then a candidate for president in the South Carolina primary pledge to put the first African American woman on the Supreme Court. This afternoon, Kate, he'll make good on that nomination and introduce her to the nation. Kate?

BOLDUAN: Jeff, thank you.

Joining me now for more on this is CNN chief legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin, CNN chief political analyst Gloria Borger, and Tomiko Brown- Nagin. She's the dean of the Harvard Radcliffe Institute and a constitutional law professor at Harvard Law School. She's also the author of "Civil Rights Queen" biography, the first black woman appointed to the federal judiciary, very appropriate reading for today. Dean, it's good to have you back. You supported Judge Jackson's nomination to the D.C. Circuit. What's your reaction to this news today?

TOMIKO BROWN-NAGIN, CONSTITUTIONAL LAW PROFESSOR, HARVARD LAW SCHOOL: I did. I believe that President Biden has made a smart selection. Jackson is unquestionably qualified for the post. She earned her educational credential in Harvard College and Harvard Law School. She has vast experience in the law as a judicial clerk, as a lawyer in private law firms on the U.S. Sentencing Commission and as a public defender.

I don't think her judicial record will be easily distorted as overly ideological. And as -- was just said, she has experience in the confirmation process, has twice been confirmed. In short, this is a nominee who should be able to garner broad support in the U.S. Senate.

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BOLDUAN: Jeffrey as we've been talking for quite some time about the shortlist, if you will, Judge Jackson has been on the shortlist of front runner the whole time, tell me about why.

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: She combines very conventional qualifications for the Supreme Court. And there are very few people who do have those qualifications with distinctive qualities that the President was looking for. The distinctive qualities, of course, for starters, is that she'd be the first black woman on the court. But she also has experience as a criminal defense lawyer.

There hasn't been someone with criminal defense experience since Thurgood Marshall, who was appointed in 1967. So those qualities are very important, but also the conventional qualities, you know, as the Dean said, you know, Harvard College, Harvard Law School, clerk on the Supreme Court, has been a judge for nine years on the district court, and just in the past year on the D.C. Circuit.

And politically, she's confirmed just last year with on a bipartisan basis. What is the reason why a senator who voted to confirm her just last year could find a reason to vote against her now? So she looks like a safe bet for confirmation. I think all of those factors play together to make her, made her the front runner and now the nominee.

BOLDUAN: And now the nominee. Gloria, what kind of confirmation process kind of getting to because getting to the politics, what kind of confirmation process do you think this is going to look, be like in the Senate?

GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, it's going to be intense. They're always intense. And even as Jeffrey says that she had a few Republicans voting for her last time, Lindsey Graham was one of them put out a statement today, saying that, you know, she's a member of the radical left. So whether he decides to give Biden his pick or not, remains to be seen.

We've seen the Republican National Committee come out already saying that she is somebody who has, quote, defended terrorists, because she represented a Guantanamo detainee. She is also somebody they consider to be very political, because she had a very sharp ruling against Donald Trump in which she said that his former White House Counsel Don McGahn needed to testify before Congress.

So they're going to be able to cherry pick a bunch of stuff that they don't like. And they're going to talk about it. And it's not going to change the nature of the court whether she's approved. And since you only need 51 votes, it's very, very likely she's going to get approved, but that doesn't mean that Republicans are not going to mount an intense opposition. They will.

BOLDUAN: Yes. And Dean, you talk about her judicial record, but assuming she's confirmed, what do you expect from a Justice Jackson in style and substance?

BROWN-NAGIN: Well, I have been impressed with her manners, she is very poised. She is accessible. And she will be someone who I imagine will be eager to get to know all of the justices and try to reach consensus with them. In terms of other matters of substance, of course, she is replacing Justice Breyer. And I don't imagine that she will be terribly unlike him in terms of where she lands on decisions. And I do want to say that even as some senators will criticize her role as a public defender, there are others who will say that it's a great asset. Given the legitimate questions that have been raised about fairness in the criminal legal system, it's important to have justices with a wide array of experiences. And of course, public defenders are an integral part of our legal system, ensuring due process and right to counsel for defendants. That's the system that we have.

BOLDUAN: Jeffrey, what does this moment mean for President Biden? What does a moment like this mean for any president?

ZELENY: You know, when you look at the records of presidents, one of the first things anybody says about their presidency, starting with the last president, Donald Trump, you hear a lot of Republicans say, well, you know, I didn't like the way he behaved in office in certain ways. I didn't like his demeanor. But we got those three appointments to the Supreme Court.

And they're right. That is a tremendously important part of the legacy. Here, the fact that President Biden is replacing a liberal with someone who will certainly be liberal on the court means that the court will not change in its rulings very much. But in terms of the opportunity to make history, the way Barack Obama made history by appointing the first Hispanic Justice Sonia Sotomayor, President Johnson appointing the first black justice. Thurgood Marshall, President Reagan appointing the first woman Sandra Day O'Connor.

This will be something that will be part of Joe Biden's legacy as president. It's a moment of considerable magnitude for him as well as the justice.

[11:25:05]

BOLDUAN: And for the nation as we know.

ZELENY: The justice nominee, she's not a justice yet.

BOLDUAN: Good clarification, always on point, be accurate. It's good to see you all, thank you so much. I really appreciate it.

Still ahead for us, more from Ukraine, we also have just in reports of an amphibious assault underway in that country. Stay with us.

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