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President Biden Set to Announce Supreme Court Pick; Russian Forces Attack Kyiv. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired February 25, 2022 - 13:00   ET

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

[13:00:31]

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

DANA BASH, CNN HOST: I'm Dana Bash in Washington, in for Ana Cabrera.

And we begin this hour with breaking news out of Ukraine, civilians racing to get off streets, as Russian forces close in on the capital city of Kyiv. U.S. officials are warning that the city could fall within days.

And a short time ago, senior U.S. defense officials tell CNN that a major Russian amphibious assault is under way west of Mariupol. And that is on the Sea of Azov. Potentially, thousands of naval infantry personnel are storming ashore there. The latest assessment is that only about a third of the Russian combat troops amassed on the border are inside Ukraine.

So far, Russia's advance on Kyiv is facing more resistance than expected. An adviser to Ukraine's government shared this video that you're looking at.It reportedly shows air defense systems taking out a Russian aircraft. Ukraine also says it destroyed dozens of Russian tanks and blew up bridges to slow the Russian advance.

Despite extensive and widespread damage, Ukraine's government is encouraging civilians to arm themselves against Russian forces, even resorting to explosive Molotov cocktails. Ukrainian President Zelensky is calling on the West to help and asking Russia to negotiate.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): When bombs fall and give, it is also happening in Europe, not just in Ukraine. When missiles kill our people, this is the death of all Europeans.

Demand better protection for Europe better defense for Ukraine, as part of a democratic world.

And now I would like to address the president of the Russian Federation once again. There is fighting all over Ukraine now. Let's sit down at the negotiating table to stop the death of people.

(END VIDEO CLIP) BASH: And CNN has reporters around the globe to bring you events as they happen.

CNN's Erin Burnett is in Lviv, Ukraine. Clarissa Ward is in Kyiv. and Barbara Starr is at the Pentagon.

And, Barbara, I want to start with you because you have a couple of new very important developments. Let's start with your reporting on NATO announcing that, for the first time ever, it is activating the Response Force.

Explain what that means.

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, Dana, this is a very nuanced development in military events in Europe right now. NATO has activated what is essentially a 40,000-man Response Force.

These are troops that would be ready to go to their positions on very short notice. No one is thinking that 40,000 are going. It will be something smaller than that, as NATO makes decisions throughout the next several days. But what it does is put troops on standby, essentially. Be ready, you may be deployed, you may be going to certain locations.

This is something the U.S. is already doing. Of course, we saw 7,000 troops yesterday being announced by the Pentagon. It puts into place essentially a framework for further deployments on that eastern flank of NATO, air, ground, sea, command-and-control. It makes NATO much more ready to respond if it's needed. So look for announcements in the coming days about exactly how many, where they might be going and what exactly they might be doing -- Dana.

BASH: And, Barbara, tell us more about the amphibious attack your hearing is under way right now against Ukraine.

STARR: This came from a briefing a short time ago by a senior defense official here at the Pentagon, saying that perhaps thousands of Russian naval infantry were moving ashore near that coastal city of Mariupol.

And they weren't sure where they were going. The U.S. wasn't exactly clear on where these troops might be going, suggesting they might be headed east into Donbass, where Russian-backed separatists are operating. But there was also kind of a very mixed picture about the battlefield, so to speak.

And let's remember, this is where millions of people live in work that has turned into a battlefield. The senior defense official saying the Russian advance, they believe, somewhat slowed down into the capital city of Kyiv, that those northern approaches into the city, the Russians have become bogged down.

The Ukrainian military, Ukrainian forces, fighting back, Ukraine still having some command-and-control capability, and air defense very much in dispute. The Russians have some air defense control, but the Ukrainian forces also have some. [13:05:13]

So, while they say that it's slowed down, some of the videos the world is seeing show Russian forces very much on the advance, continuing to pour troops and vehicles into Ukraine. This is a battlefield that, to say the least, is very fluid -- Dana.

BASH: To say the least.

Well, let's get to what is that battlefield, the country of Ukraine,

Erin Burnett is in Lviv, to the west of that country.

Erin, what are you seeing and hearing there?

ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: So I will say, just in the past few moments here, President Zelensky, of course, president of Ukraine, Dana, just appearing, doing a Facebook sort of a selfie video with four of his closest advisers and coming out of that bunker that we understand he's been in underneath Kyiv that he's talked about, appearing sort of on the streets with his defense minister as well, which is important, given that, of course, Putin is appealing to the military here to stage some sort of a coup.

You see them there saying that, we are all here, our military is here, we're defending our independence, glory to our defenders and glory to Ukraine.

So, still incredibly defiant here. You are obviously in the nighttime here, tensions incredibly high. And the nighttime is when you see a lot of these missile strikes that have come in, those explosions. They're going to have a curfew starting in less than two hours, where I am and in cities across this country. Many of them will also go completely dark because they're worried about planes flying overhead, missile targeting.

That is the world that people here are living in. And now, when those sirens go off, there is an urgency. People are going to those shelters. We went to one today. It's packed. People go in there. They wait for the all-clear. Then they go back out. When they go back out, the streets are very empty.

So that's essentially the world that you're living in here, Dana. It is people who are anxious, people who are afraid. Now you are seeing more and more people leave and sort of head to the land borders west to try to get out of the country. Men are not allowed to leave the country though; 18-to-60-year-old men have to stay.

Dana, I will say one more thing. I spoke to one of them today. A whole lot of reservists are gathering outside military facilities. They have been called up. They're showing up, says: "I took a bus with my friends in the same brigade. And we came from our small town. We took the bus. We came here."

And I asked him: "Are you afraid?" And he's a veteran of the war in the east. And he said: "Yes. Yes, all people are afraid. Only a stupid person would not be afraid right now."

And that's essentially the reality, but just complete and utter defiance and patriotism right now against the Russian invaders.

BASH: Erin, we're learning so much from you, as you report on what's happening from the point of view of the government and also from the people whose lives have been completely changed in the last two to three days.

And speaking of somebody bringing us those stories, I want to go now to Clarissa Ward, who is in the capital city of Kyiv.

So, Clarissa, do you get the sense of what officials here and around the world are reporting is happening, which is that the Russians are closing in on that city?

CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it certainly is feeling that way, Dana.

I mean, the streets tonight, just as Erin was describing here, pitch black. You could hear a pin drop. In fact, the only sounds we have heard in a couple of hours since we arrived from the city of Kharkiv are the church bells and air raid sirens.

We made the journey earlier on today. And it was interesting to see along the roads, basically pretty clear access. But we did pass a Ukrainian military convoy that appeared to have been targeted by the air. You can see the video now there, still smoke billowing. There were firefighters on the scene trying to put out the fires.

I think one of the trucks was probably a fuel truck. But the one in front was a multi-rocket launcher. And what's interesting about this is, it's showing that the Russians are now sort of striking targets opportunistically as they -- as and when they can. We did see at least one Ukrainian soldier who was obviously killed in that attack.

And it really goes to show you just how difficult this is for the Ukrainians with no air defense to move weaponry around effectively, without being targeted. And, obviously, their ability to do that is being significantly diminished.

We also saw as we got closer to the city a large group of civil defense volunteers, dozens of them standing there on the highway with a huge pile of tires. And one can only assume that the intention is, if and when Russian forces start to move along that road towards the capital, that they attempt -- will attempt to block that by setting fire to those tires.

[13:10:00]

But, obviously, burning tires and civil defense volunteers is not really a match for the sophistication of the Russian military. We know that they're already at an air base just on the outskirts of Kyiv that my colleague Matthew Chance went and visited yesterday. Russian troops were already there.

And there is a sense that, even though they are facing quite a bit of resistance from the Ukrainian military, that they are pressing in from multiple directions. Keep in mind, it goes without saying this is a city of nearly three million people, Dana, so, obviously, absolutely terrifying for people here as they wait to see what tonight will bring.

BASH: It really is a David-vs.-Goliath situation there. And it's fascinating to see even in the most rudimentary ways, as you describe, Ukrainians doing whatever they can to try to fight back, whether it's with tires or Molotov cocktails.

Thank you so much for your incredible reporting, Clarissa Ward, Erin Burnett, and Barbara Starr.

And now to Russia.

CNN's Nic Robertson is in Moscow.

So, Nic, Russian President Vladimir Putin sent another televised message, but he sent it to an unlikely audience, Ukraine's military. What did he say?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yes, this seems to be another message where President Putin is not reading the room very well, to send a message, as he did to the Ukrainian military, essentially telling them to turn on their own government.

That was what he was saying. We have heard other chilling messages coming from other officials here in the country, the Kremlin spokesman today saying that the Ukrainian military has taken advice and information from U.S. advisers and is placing its military hardware in civilian neighborhoods.

Now, when you think about the Russian playbook, because we have heard this sort of narrative before, the Russians have been saying so far that they're only going to target the military, and they're not going to target the civilian neighborhoods. And they were saying that only this morning.

And this afternoon, they're saying, well, actually, there's military hardware in those civilian neighborhoods. And it very much feels and looks, given their previous playbook, that they will now target civilian neighborhoods and potentially Kyiv and other places.

That's a very chilling narrative. The words of President Putin that you were mentioning were very chilling as well. He used some pretty derogatory language. Fascists, neo-Nazis was the language he was using about the Ukrainian authorities, and, again, as you say, that appeal to the military, to the people of the country to turn on the leadership.

This is how we framed it:

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): Do not let

Banderites 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 have settled in Kyiv and taken hostage the entire Ukrainian people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTSON: So, taken with these cues that there could be military hardware in those civilian neighborhoods, it really is a threat to the people of Ukraine.

There has been a narrative today from the Kremlin that they could strike up peace talks, talking with Ukrainian officials. Putin had said that he was willing to meet in -- or willing for his officials, at least, to meet in Minsk with Ukrainian officials, Minsk, of course, the capital of Belarus, Belarus, of course, the country that has been host of Russian forces, and is actually a pathway and gateway for those Russian forces to invade Ukraine.

The Kremlin saying that, actually, later in the day, the Ukrainian authorities saying, no, rather not go to Kyiv -- rather not go to Minsk for talks. We would choose Warsaw, the capital of Poland. That track of diplomacy has apparently gone dead.

And one interesting, perhaps quite poignant note here, and I think given those protests that we saw on the streets of Moscow and other cities across Russia last night, 1,700 people arrested there, by the way, the Kremlin spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, his daughter on Telegram, on a verified account with 180,000 followers, actually posted a "Stop the war, no to the war" message on her Telegram account.

BASH: Wow.

ROBERTSON: It has now been taken down.

But, yes, the spokesman for the Kremlin, the man who speaks for President Putin, his own daughter saying no to the war. That's pretty powerful.

BASH: Sure is. Wow. That is absolutely fascinating. Generational and -- we could have a whole other discussion about that.

Nic, thank you so much for that reporting.

We're going to take a quick break, But much more ahead, including we're just getting word that President Biden had another phone call with President Zelensky of Ukraine, as he is trying to get more help from the U.S. and its allies.

And also you see there the other really big story today, President Biden's historic Supreme Court pick. He's set to formally announce the nomination of Ketanji Brown Jackson live moments from now.

[13:15:04] Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BASH: This just in.

CNN is learning that President Biden and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky just spoke for the first time since the early hours of the attack on Ukraine.

I want to go straight to the White House, where our chief correspondent there, our chief White House correspondent, Kaitlan Collins, has the report.

What are you learning, Kaitlan?

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Dana, both the White House and the Ukrainians now confirming that President Biden and President Zelensky have just gotten off the phone.

The White House says they spoke for about 40 minutes. And this is a notable conversation, because it's the first time that they have spoken since the early hours of that Russian attack on Ukraine Wednesday night, when, after the -- after Russia started this physical assault, President Biden got on the phone with President Zelensky, where he asked the U.S. president to help rally international support behind Ukraine in this time.

[13:20:11]

And now they have just spoken again. We have not gotten details on it beyond the timing from the White House yet, but President Zelensky tweeted that strengthening sanctions, concrete defense assistance, and an anti-war coalition were all discussed on the call. He said he's grateful to have American support, strong support for Ukraine.

And so, of course, that is going to raise some questions about whether or not -- what they talked about when it comes to these sanctions, the ones that President Biden announced yesterday on Russia in response to conducting this invasion into Ukraine.

And we have heard from President Zelensky and some of his top advisers, saying they believed the United States and the European Union could go further with their sanctions and their actions against Russia, saying that they were grateful for what happened, but asking for more.

And I also think it comes at a really critical time, because we have seen those explosions in the capital city of Kyiv. We know the Russian forces have been closing in, as the secretary of state here at the -- in the United States says he does believe Putin is intent on overthrowing Zelensky's government.

Zelensky has said he is going to stay in Kyiv. And the White House has been closely monitoring his location and his whereabouts. And, of course, whether or not they change anything when it comes to the assistance or what happens there, that remains to be seen.

But it is notable that they have just had another phone call in the last few days, Dana.

BASH: Really fascinating, especially since we have seen him publicly him -- President Zelensky really asking for more help from the West, especially the U.S.

Thank you so much, Kaitlan.

And the president, President Biden, has a very, very busy day today. He is going to announce the D.C. Appeals Court Judge Ketani -- Ketanji -- forgive me -- Brown Jackson as his Supreme Court nominee. If confirmed, she will be the first African-American woman justice in the court's 232-year history.

CNN chief national affairs correspondent Jeff Zeleny, CNN senior legal analyst and former federal prosecutor Laura Coates, and CNN legal analyst and Supreme Court biographer Joan Biskupic join us now.

So, Jeff, want to get to you first.

Take us behind the scenes. Tell us about your reporting about how the president came to this decision.

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Well, Dana, we know that President Biden has been thinking about this for a very long time.

And he actually met for an interview earlier this month with Judge Jackson, but offered her the job just last evening. In a brief telephone call, he extended the offer. And she accepted it, we're told. But then this morning, she appeared at her day job at a routine hearing at the appeals court, but she will be appearing at the White House this afternoon with her family and with President Biden to make this historic pick.

But President Biden, we're told, has been reading her opinions and her writings for quite some time, really for the last year or so, as well as some of others -- some of the other finalists. But we know that she was always the front-running contender. He looked at other candidates. Other considerations were in play.

But the White House believes that -- now, she's already been confirmed three times by the Senate to the federal bench, including just last year. Three Republicans voted for her. It's an open question if they can get three Republicans or more this time, but the White House believes that her credentials are sterling.

And the president was taken by her background, her resume, her character, her credibility and the history-making moment this will be next hour at the White House.

BASH: And on that, Laura, talk about the significance of this moment.

LAURA COATES, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: For me, as a former prosecutor, and, obviously, as the black woman who's an attorney, the power of seeing a black woman on the Supreme Court is something that really is unmatched in my lifetime, my mother's lifetime, and my grandmother's lifetime.

But, to me, what's also equally impressive about this particular candidate and nominee is that she is an embarrassment of riches when it comes to her actual career. She is extraordinarily qualified. And her work as a federal public defender, I think, puts her in a unique position to have a perspective that we have not seen on the Supreme Court of the United States.

It may be that people oftentimes give all the blame or the acclaim to prosecutors in terms of accountability. But our relationship to federal public defenders has always been symbiotic. We need them to guard against injustice. We need them to have that check and balance against what can often be an autonomous exercise of power by those who can wield discretion.

And so having that insight, having that background, acknowledging what it takes to have those checks and balances and to really have the same thought process of ensuring that you have the promotion of justice and, of course, the prevention of injustice, I cannot tell you what this means.

And finally, personally, when I look at this, Dana, when I heard about this particular nominee coming out, in a moment, my spine straightened. Black lawyers all across this country's spine straightened, because, for us, we know that we are all Supreme Court nominees today.

[13:25:00]

BASH: Wow. That's a powerful statement, Laura.

Joan, we just heard from Laura talking about the -- Judge Jackson's experience as a public defender. And that is something that was important to not only the president, but a lot of people in his party.

But with regard to her experience and her record as a judge, walk us through some of the highlights there.

JOAN BISKUPIC, CNN SUPREME COURT ANALYST: Sure.

And in that respect, she also has a special perspective too. She was appointed to a trial court position back in 2013 by President Obama. And trial court practices isn't common at the Supreme Court. The last time we had a trial judge appointed was when Justice Sotomayor came on, and that had been some of her past experience from the '90s.

So, for eight years, Judge Jackson handled the first rung of civil and criminal trials here in Washington, D.C. Really, it's in the nitty- gritty of just how government works, and a lot of separation of powers questions. In fact, one, Dana, that's I'm sure going to get a lot of attention during the hearings is when she ruled in 2019 against President Trump and his former White House counsel Don McGahn when then-President Trump was trying to prevent McGahn and others from testifying to House investigators related to impeachment.

And she wrote a very long opinion, saying that presidents aren't kings, that he can -- his top aides should have to testify. And, indeed, over time, Don McGahn did. And then, just last year, she became President Biden's first choice for a very -- the prestigious D.C. Circuit here in Washington, again dealing with a lot of important separation of powers and regulatory matters.

BASH: Yes.

BISKUPIC: And the -- probably the most prominent opinion since she came on the court just in the last couple of months has been the one that said that President -- former President Trump does not have the power to stop his records, his public records, not his personal records, his public records...

BASH: Yes.

BISKUPIC: ... at the National Archives from being turned over to the January 6 Committee.

BASH: Yes, which was very recent and very important.

Speaking of Republicans, Jeff Zeleny, I want to talk about one of the sort of really surprising subplots here that people might not realize, that Judge Jackson is related by marriage to the former Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan, and not only that. Just after losing his bid for vice president, he went with her when she was being confirmed, I believe, the second time.

She was being confirmed for the district court, and he spoke on her behalf. Listen to what happened.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FMR. REP. PAUL RYAN (R-WI): Our politics may differ, but my praise for Ketanji's intellect, for her character, for her integrity, it's unequivocal.

She's an amazing person. And I favorably recommend your consideration.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: He put out a statement saying similar things today, that they have different politics, but that her intellect and character are unimpeachable.

So you have that. And then you have the fact that, as you mentioned, three Republican senators voted for just last year for the court that is just below the Supreme Court that she is going to be nominated for.

Talk about the Republican resistance or the way that Republicans are playing this.

ZELENY: Dana, we have already heard from several Republicans from Mitch McConnell on down raising more questions about the process and the ideology, rather than her credentials.

Senator Lindsey Graham was one of the three Republicans who voted just last year to confirm her, along with Senator Susan Collins and Senator Lisa Murkowski. Well, Senator Graham came out this morning and essentially assailed her as a tool of the left. He had been pushing another candidate in this race, a South Carolina federal judge, Michelle Childs. And the president did consider her, but decided to go a different route.

So, Senator Graham clearly does not seem to be going to repeat his confirmation vote. It's an open question how many Republicans will actually vote to confirm her, probably almost certainly fewer than one hand, perhaps even far fewer than one hand.

But the reality is, Democrats have enough, if they stay united -- and all indications are that they will -- that she will be confirmed by a narrow margin. And that is just how partisan politics work right now. We are not going to see, in today's age, the wide confirmation of votes that used to exist in Washington. That simply is not the case.

But, importantly, we are not seeing Republicans questioning her credentials. They simply are raising more questions about the liberal ideology and the process surrounding the court. And I think that's notable.

BASH: Very similar to -- the flip side of this happened when Amy Coney Barrett was nominated.

ZELENY: Right.

BASH: You had three Democrats who had voted to confirm her on a lower court. One of them was no longer in the Senate, but those two then did not vote to confirm her for the Supreme Court.

All right, thank you so much, all of you.